


Across the Western Ocean I Must Wander

by everybodyknowseverybodydies



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Accidental kidnapping, Alternate Universe, F/F, Pirates, and some Easter eggs, because The Author Thinks She's Clever, featuring a couple of extra-fandom expies, minor appearances from Usagi Rei Mina and Queen Serenity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-08-27 16:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8407933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everybodyknowseverybodydies/pseuds/everybodyknowseverybodydies
Summary: I'm sick in the head and I haven't gone to bedSince I first came ashore for me slumberAnd it's all for me grog, me jolly, jolly grog,Across the western ocean I must wander





	1. away, haul away, we'll haul away together

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! This happened because I saw an old thing on FF that said PIRATE AU and I got excited but then... it was not the pirate AU I wanted. I was sad, I all-caps-texted a friend with very little context, she commiserated even though she had no idea what was happening. So I wrote the pirate AU I wanted! IT TOOK LIKE THREE AND A HALF MONTHS BUT HERE WE ARE. Disclaimer: I have not written anything this long or serious for fandom in actual years, and I haven't ever shared any strictly SM fic before, so... if you are looking for fic by a more seasoned fan writer I apologize and offer cookies, and I hope you'll still enjoy! Also, if someone kidnaps you, even if it is kind of an accident and they are in fact very apologetic and nice, maybe don't... hang out with them.  
> (title from "All for Me Grog," an old sea shanty)

Under the reign of the gracious Queen Serenity, all was well. The people were happy. The crops were plentiful. Storms struck few and far between; the rain fell gentle as a fairytale.

Fairytales have villains, though, and even though crime was nigh unheard of under Queen Serenity, it was only so because those entrusted with enforcing the law were very, very good at ensuring the general public was unaware of most of those plotting ill. They were, however, not perfect, and the handful of criminals that did become well-known took pride in their notoriety, using it to execute more and more heinous crimes.

This was, at least, what the news system perpetuated.

* * *

 

“Ami!” The princess bounded down the stairs in a most unladylike fashion, all tangled skirts and bare feet and tripping. She was beaming widely, though, excitement radiating off her almost tangibly in a flood of cheerful warmth. Skidding to a stop before her royal treasurer, she panted, “The cookies are fresh!” With that, she thrust a plateful of warm cookies under Ami’s nose.

Biting back a smile, Ami gingerly took a cookie from the plate. “Oh—thank you, princess.”

The eager face melted rapidly into a pout. “I told you, you don’t hafta call me that when it’s not all formal, I’m just Usagi ’nd we’re friends! I don’t call you Treasurer Mizuno all the time so you shouldn’t call me princess all the time either.” As if to emphasize the informality of the current situation, Usagi bit into a cookie firmly, crumbs spilling down the front of her dress.

“I’m sorry. Thank you, Usagi,” Ami amended, cupping a hand under her cookie to keep the same from happening with her crumbs. “Did the kitchen staff make these for you to pass out?”

“I don’t think so. But they’re fresh! Everyone needs a fresh cookie!” Usagi grinned and stuffed the rest of her cookie into her mouth. “M’gonna go give one to Rei!” she said around the mouthful of gooey cookie. “Bye Ami!” The princess was off again before Ami could respond, disappearing around the corner in a flurry of white silk and messy blonde pigtails.

Ami watched her go with a smile, waiting until she was sure Usagi was gone to start walking again. She took her time with the cookie in her hands, thoughts wandering as she exited the main section of the palace and made her way to the southern wing, boots clicking quietly on the tile.

Her footsteps slowed as she reached the end of the hallway, snapping to attention. She hadn’t left the door to the treasury opened yesterday—she had shut and locked it, just as she always did, which meant it definitely should not be open right now, and the handle of the door should absolutely not have been crushed.

She cautiously leaned into the room, then inched inside, wary. The clinking of coins being dropped into a sack together was coming from behind her desk. Someone was most assuredly in here, and they were just as assuredly stealing from the treasury. Heart thudding against her ribcage, Ami flattened herself against the wall. Should she call for the guards? What if that alerted the thief and they got away before anyone else arrived? But surely she couldn’t try to accost the thief herself; anyone who could crush a door handle could crush a treasurer just as easily. Maybe if she was quick enough she could run and get someone before the thief finished taking—

The thief stood up. Ami froze, eyes wide. The tall woman holding the sack full of coins blinked, seeming stunned to see another person, and for an uncomfortably long time neither of them moved. In the frozen, awkward moment, Ami’s brain picked up speed. What could she do, what could she—catalog. Seafaring stance. Strong features. Sharp jawline. Thick red-brown curls tied back in a tattered ribbon. Soft green eyes, startled into near bewilderment that made them even softer. Some sort of sleeveless tunic belted at the waist. Arms—her train of thought derailed there as she tried to think of how a woman came to have such defined arms outside of the military, because she didn’t look Navy with the tiny delicate porcelain roses pinned through her earlobes—

Then Ami found her legs and bolted. She didn’t make it past the door, instead slamming into a much bigger person and staggering backwards with a startled squeak before hitting the floor, the impact jarring her spine. The sound of it was painful; her ears hurt more than her tailbone. The barrel-chested man in the doorway raised an eyebrow and leaned down to be eye level with her, even as she tried to scramble away. “Cap’n,” he rumbled. “Who’s this?”

Someone yanked her to her feet again by the collar of her shirt, and she spun, scrabbling frantically at the hand at the back of her neck. “You know…” The woman thief shook out a handkerchief from her pocket and covered Ami’s mouth and nose. “I’m not sure.”

Ami registered the damp, faintly sweet scent of the drug, and just had time to kick out wildly at both the man in front of her and the woman behind her before the effects struck. The last thing she saw before the world went dark was the ceiling, spinning overhead.

* * *

 

When she awoke, the taste that lingered in Ami’s mouth was metallic, and her first thought was that she’d bitten her tongue. There was no blood in her mouth, though; it took her a moment to remember the drugged rag.

Gradually, she came to herself, keeping her eyes closed as she took in what she could. She wasn’t tied down—which was a positive, she noted—but judging from the instability of the hammock she was in and the smell of saltwater, she was also not on land anymore. The wooden creaking of the ship was quieter than she’d imagined it would be, she realized curiously. It was another minute or two before she opened her eyes.

“Oh, you’re up already. I haven’t actually ever used that before, so it’s good to know how long it lasts. Are you okay? I tried to make sure you didn’t hit your head or anything but after it kicked in you went down quick, like, really hard—” The woman from before quirked an apologetic smile at her from a chair by the door, one leg crossed over the other. She had a long coat on over the belted tunic now, and a tricorn hat that earned a double-take. “I’m really, really sorry, no one was supposed to be around. We had to do something, and of course you understand it wouldn’t do to just let you go tell everyone you’d seen us. There’d be a whole big thing, it would be awkward, they might hurt some of my people…” She tilted her head and stared intently at Ami with a pair of brilliant green eyes. “So, um. I hope you like the sea. You don’t have to join the crew or anything, but I’m afraid we can’t let you go back to the palace after all this. You understand.”

Ami sat up, or tried to, the hammock swinging to dump her unceremoniously on the floor of the cabin. She tugged nervously at her high collar and swallowed. “I… don’t, actually,” she admitted. “Who are you? Why were you stealing from the royal treasury?”

With an incredulous laugh, the thief moved off her chair to sit on the floor as well, shrugging and swiping at a lock of long brown hair that had somehow escaped from her ponytail. “You’re right, sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Captain Makoto Kino of the _Rose and Thorn_.”

“Didn’t mean to be _rude?_ You _drugged_ and then _kidnapped_ me—” Ami stopped, eyes widening as the name registered. “You’re… you’re not? You’re not.”

“Not what?” Captain Kino lifted her eyebrows in apparent bafflement. “I did apologize about the drugging and kidnapping; Marco swore no one was ever in the treasury at that time of morning. If he’d given us the right time, there wouldn’t have been any need for you to get involved.”

“I have to start the monthly inventory in the mornings,” Ami said distantly. “It takes all day. You’re the pirate.”

The captain laughed again. “You say that like I’m the only pirate there is. Oh, that’s—that’s actually really sweet. I’m kinda flattered. I mean you don’t really need to flatter me but I appreciate the thought—”

Ami shook her head and pressed her palms to her cheeks, trying to convince herself this was all a bad dream. “You’re the pirate,” she repeated.

“Y…es,” Captain Kino said slowly, squinting at her curiously. “A pirate. One of many. Not ‘the.’ And you are…?”

If she could only figure out what would convince the pirate to let her go back home. Ami tried to think. Which was more likely to get her released, making herself sound more or less important? Someone who couldn’t interact with any of the royal family and wouldn’t be able to point fingers at Captain Kino wouldn’t have access to the treasury, she considered. Very well then. She shifted her jaw and sat a little straighter, hoping she looked more commanding than she felt. “Ami Mizuno, Royal Treasurer.” _Embellish_. “Confidante to the princess.” As much as a sometimes-tutor could be, in any case.

Captain Kino looked impressed. “Really.”

“Yes.” Ami folded her arms and lifted her chin in her best imitation of Commander Hino. She couldn’t quite bring herself to mimic the scathing glare, or to maintain eye contact for very long, but she tried nonetheless. “It is in your best interests to return me home as soon as possible.” Her voice was embarrassingly small and shaky.

Breaking into a smile, the captain reached over and touched her shoulder. “Well, I’d love to give the princess her friend back and let you go sit at that nice desk counting the royals’ money all day, but like I said, that’s not really an option, because we don’t have any guarantee that you wouldn’t, you know, tell someone about us stealing some of that money. Actually we probably did you a favor. I heard the last treasurer was executed because there was a robbery that happened while he was working.” She ruffled Ami’s hair playfully. “This way you don’t have to worry about suffering any misdirected consequences! So see, we helped! We can make sure you don’t get executed. That’s a good thing, right?”

Ami flushed, reaching up to smooth her short hair back into place. “But—if I’ve disappeared at the same time then—then doesn’t it look like I’m the guilty party instead?”

Contemplating this, Captain Kino tilted her head. “Mmm… oh. Serenity. Yeah, you’re right. Well, they’ll have discovered it by now, so you probably shouldn’t go back there anyway. I really am sorry. I’m really… really sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen, I swear. But maybe… in the meantime, you can do… pretty much whatever on my ship, but I do suggest you stay in here when we’re docked. And by ‘suggest’ I mean you definitely should, because there’s not very many places we dock that will be very, er… _safe_ for someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” The indignant words were out before Ami could stop them.

“Well, yeah.” Captain Kino grinned sheepishly. “You’re all… soft and bright. You’d be pegged as palace stock before you could blink. They’d eat you alive.” _Soft and bright_. What was that supposed to mean?

“And I’m to believe that you and your crew won’t.”

“You have my word on that.” She stood, brushing off her trousers and gesturing. “This is your room. There’s a lock on the door you can use if that makes you feel any better. We don’t have room service, though, so if you want something to eat you’ll have to come out to eat with the rest of us.” She gave her another smile, this one friendly and apologetic and disconcertingly sweet. “If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know, yeah?”

Ami averted her eyes, hands folded in her lap. “Yes.” Her voice came out quieter than she’d intended, but she let it go—repetition implied uncertainty. As nice as the captain was being to her, this was inconsistent with the stories of Captain Kino, pirate, that she’d heard and read. It made more sense that this show of apparent goodwill was some sort of ploy.

“Right, well, um,” Captain Kino said. “You slept through midday meal, so… see you at dinner if you’re up for it.” She waited for a moment, seemingly expecting a reply. Not getting one, she nodded awkwardly and left, shutting the door behind her.

Her spine remained rigid. She got to her feet and began a thorough inspection of the room. This was Queen Serenity’s kingdom; anywhere they docked would surely have someone who would be able to help her get home. She needed to be prepared to take the chance if it came up. And, with any luck, it would.

* * *

 

“So? What’s the plan, cap’n?” Brutus raised his eyebrows, not moving from his position leaned against the wall, arms folded.

Makoto shrugged and reached for her weapons belt, refastening it around her hips. “We carry on with the original plan for now. I don’t think she’s going to cause any problems.” She huffed as she pulled on her long coat. “I’m not scary, am I?”

“…what?”

“I really tried not to be scary, I left all this stuff out here,” Mako gestured to the table. “I was nice! I was really nice! But she was still scared, Brutus.”

He cleared his throat. “All due respect, we did sort of… abduct her and frame her for stealing from the royal family.”

She made a dismissive sound, shoving a dagger back into her boot. “I think she’s kind of upset about that, which, okay, is probably fair.”

“More than fair, cap’n.”

“More than fair,” she conceded. “Beside the point. She was doing a good job acting like she’s just mad, but I still scared her.”

Pursing his lips, he said, “You know the sort of reputation our lot’s got in the central parts ‘f the kingdom. Queen Serenity’s not too favorable towards thievery and whatnot. Maybe s’less you specifically that’s the problem and more… the hearsay. Or something.”

She jammed her tricorn back on her head and sighed. “Fine. Nobody goes near that room without permission, got it?”

“I’ll let the rest of the crew know. Dez isn’t going to be happy, though.”

“What? He just cleaned that room before I put her in there!”

Brutus lifted his shoulders apologetically. “You know how he is.”

Grumbling, Mako rubbed at her temple. “Tell him if he stays away from there he can have dish duty for as long as he wants.”

“You got it.”

She straightened the collar of her coat and glanced at the door. “Alright. What’s Rattler got on the menu for dinner? If he’s making that stupid stew again—”

“No, no, he’s using that new dumpling recipe you taught him,” he assured her. “Not the stew.”

“That’s a relief.” With an exhale, she put her hands on her hips. “I’ll go make sure everything’s going okay in the kitchen. You check in on Spoons, make sure he’s doing alright and still on course.”

Brutus touched his forehead in salute and left to do as asked. Sitting down, Mako drummed her fingers on the table. She’d never kidnapped anyone before, and she hadn’t really meant to—she had just been so surprised to stand up and see her standing there, all wide eyes and delicate little frame, that her first, unfiltered thought had been _why is the princess in the treasury?_ Then, of course, she’d recognized the skirted uniform as court official apparel and not royal garb, and that was when Brutus had bowled her over. Mako had meant to pull her up to see if she was okay, but then the girl had _scratched_ her, and Mako just sort of panicked. She and Brutus had been very careful not to hurt her, and she was pretty sure she’d strung up the extra hammock the right way. It hadn’t fallen down while she waited for her to wake up, anyway.

And now she had a girl from the palace on her ship.

It was sort of strange, she thought. She hadn’t told any of the rest of the crew yet, just warned them away from the spare cabin, but she’d have to before dinner so they wouldn’t be caught off guard when the newcomer came to dinner. ( _If_. If she came to dinner. Mako made a mental note to take her something to eat anyway if she didn’t.) Knowing them, most of them would be excited to have a new face on board. Pegleg would scowl, but he was always scowling about something or another.

With luck she’d come to dinner and Mako could introduce everyone to her there, and she’d realize the _Rose and Thorn_ wasn’t so bad after all. Mako snorted. Yeah, right. It’d take some time before that happened, if it happened at all. She couldn’t even say why she wanted this girl to trust her, why it mattered so much, beyond the obvious needing her not to run off and get them all arrested.

But maybe. Maybe she’d come around. It wasn’t so bad being at sea, really; maybe she’d come to see that. Mako hoped so. Otherwise… it was going to be a long voyage.

* * *

 

“No, Rei, you gotta understand, she wouldn’t,” wailed the princess. She was a mess, face wet with tears and snot, snuffling damply every other word. “She wo-o-ouldn’t!”

Her military commander stood at attention, voice softening at the miserable sight. “I know you don’t want to think the worst of anyone, and I liked Treasurer Mizuno as much as you did, princess, but—”

“M’just Usagi!”

Rei plowed on. “— but as Queen Serenity explained, even those we trust can sometimes betray us. At the moment, all evidence suggests she collaborated with the pirates who stole from the royal treasury. The amount missing is significant enough to warrant the order for arrest.”

Usagi snatched up part of her skirt to blow her nose. Rei tried to keep a blank face. “Ami w-w-wouldn’t though,” she insisted through her bawling. “You c-can’t arr-r-rest her, Rei, you j-j-just ca-a-a-aaaan’t!”

“I’m sorry, princess,” Rei said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I have to obey the queen’s orders. If we find evidence that exonerates her, we’ll stop. But you have to admit, she does look guilty, disappearing like that…”

She sniffed and looked up at the commander with wet, despairing eyes. “She’s not,” she said, voice small. “She’s my friend, like you.”

Rei sighed and awkwardly patted her princess’s back. “I’m sorry. I’ve already sent men out looking. Minako and I are supposed to join the group leaving tomorrow morning. We’ll see if she has an explanation when we find her, alright?”

Usagi made a pitiful sound, and Rei wondered, not for the first time, when she’d signed on to double for the princess’s nursemaid.


	2. why won't you let me go home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is the worst trip  
> I've ever been on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hums Sloop John B* Thank you for reading!

Ami had taken careful note of nearly every inch of the room by the time someone started clanging the bell that, presumably, meant a mealtime. In addition to the hammock and the chair by the door (which appeared to be fairly comfortable), there was a chest of drawers (empty) and eight crates of brown glass bottles. Ami was almost entirely sure these bottles contained some sort of alcohol, judging by the overpowering smell of them. There was no window, but there was a lamp affixed to the wall by the door; the candle in it seemed to be fresh, so it wouldn’t need changing any time soon. She wasn’t sure how she was meant to light it in the morning without matches, but she wasn’t going to ask the captain for them. Maybe she’d just sleep with it lit.

When the bell started up, she was standing on the chair, up on her toes to inspect the ceiling. The sudden noise made her jump. She caught herself on the back of the chair and let out a breath. “Stop that,” Ami told herself. “You’re fine.” She stepped down carefully and returned the chair to its place by the door, hesitating. Captain Kino had said the only way to get to eat was to join the crew at mealtimes. She didn’t like the thought of sitting with what she could only imagine would be a rowdy group of hulking men like the one she’d run into in the treasury.

Actually, in her mind’s eye, she realized she was just picturing several duplicates of him sitting menacingly around a table.

Ami shook her head firmly and hugged herself. No. She wouldn’t be intimidated into locking herself in this room. Besides, perhaps there would be a more obvious means of escape elsewhere on the ship. That decided, she took a breath and straightened, chin up as she reached for the door.

She followed the sound of the bell to a longer room and came to a halt in the doorway. The room was loud, but it wasn’t the threatening sort of noisy she’d been imagining—just… _loud_. Someone let out a great belly laugh and hooted, while others argued over something Ami couldn’t quite make out. She only counted twenty, including Captain Kino, who now looked the part of the unapproachable pirate Ami had heard about, and yet there was such variety among them she could hardly believe it. Over there was the enormous broad man she’d run into, over here a slender old woman, there a short man with a moustache so long he’d had to tie it up to keep it out of his food, here a teenaged girl with an eyepatch…

She realized too late that the room had gone silent, and they were all looking at her curiously. Ami’s face flushed red; she took a small step back, mouth open to apologize, but Captain Kino cut her off before she could say a word. “There you are! I was just telling everyone we had a guest. Let me introduce you!” The captain stood up with a grin and came to take Ami by the arm, leading her around the room. “Everyone, this is our guest, Ami. Ami, this is Brutus, Patch, Rudy, Spoons, Pegleg, Baldy, Illis, Dez, the Colonel, Stumpy, Rattler, Scout, Marco, Rat, Fox, Verne, Greep, Thadwick, and Roger!”

“Roger?” she echoed faintly.

The captain grinned. “Because he’s so jolly!”

Ami nodded slowly and allowed herself to be steered to an empty stool beside Captain Kino as the noise resumed its previous volume. “I… see.” She sat carefully and smoothed out her skirt, quietly studying her surroundings. The grin on the captain’s face faltered, bright eyes clouding with worry.

“It’s dumplings tonight. Do you like dumplings? I came up with the recipe, so—”

“I don’t mind dumplings.” Ami waited for the captain to sit down again before she put on a small smile. “I suppose it’s lucky I have a good memory. I don’t imagine many of your crew would be very pleased if I had to ask their name every time I needed directions.”

“What? Oh,” Captain Kino seemed surprised, “did I go too fast? Serenity, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel rushed.”

She kept her hands in her lap and her smile in place. “No, not at all! I wouldn’t have expected a slower pace from the pirate.”

The captain laughed and reached for her tin goblet, taking a gulp of what appeared to be wine. “Why do you keep saying that? I’m not _the_ pirate.”

Ami felt her brow knit and tried to stop it, determined not to be caught off guard. “What do you mean? You did introduce yourself as Captain Makoto Kino, did you not?”

“Well, yeah—”

“The pirate captain,” she pressed on. “Of the stories.”

“Stories?”

“Captain Kino and the Great Whale, Captain Kino and the Cave of Emerald, Captain Kino and the Sirens…” She trailed off. “You are the only pirate captain to have evaded Queen Serenity’s men,” Ami said. “Are the stories… not as true as they have been publicized to be?”

The captain blinked at her, cheeks dusted with pink. “Uh. I didn’t know they wrote stories about us.”

“No, just you. Your crew isn’t mentioned by name.”

“Well—I mean—we aren’t the only pirate ship; why do you think we are?”

“Because… you are,” Ami insisted. “The naval fleet has eradicated piracy except for the _Rose and Thorn_. Haven’t they?”

Captain Kino shook her head. “Of course not. That would be impossible. Whoever is telling you that clearly hasn’t been on the water recently.” She gestured with her fork before putting a dumpling in her mouth. “There’s plenty of others. You didn’t think I was responsible for every act of piracy committed since I became captain, did you?”

Ami made a point of looking away and not answering.

“…you did? Hell, you _did_.”

“Reports did not indicate otherwise,” she said, stubborn and a bit quieter.

The captain laughed and took a drink. “Well damn, consider me flattered.” She lifted her cup, nodding towards Ami’s plate. “Hey, you can go ahead and eat; it’s good, I promise. Nobody poisoned it or anything.”

She had actually been trying to see if there was really only the one fork and knife available, but she said nothing, just made a small ‘mmhmm’ sound and hesitantly picked up the silverware. Butter knife and salad fork; both from different sets, both dulled with age. That was fine. She hadn’t really expected more than that. She set to work trying to cut the dumplings into bite-sized pieces.

Captain Kino let out a little noise of amusement. Ami felt her cheeks redden in sudden self-consciousness, keeping her eyes resolutely fixed on the plate. This was fine, she tried to convince herself; this was absolutely fine. Absolutely.

* * *

 

Mako watched interestedly as she painstakingly cut the food into tiny pieces. What was she doing? Was this how they ate at the palace? It was so _slow_ and _deliberate_. No wonder nobles always seemed so aloof; if it took them ages before they could actually eat anything and they had to focus on staying so clean, they must not ever have time to talk to each other during meals. Mako rested her chin on her fist, grinning at the determined set of Ami’s jaw. She wouldn’t say anything; not in front of the crew—she didn’t want her to feel like she was mocking her. Which, on top of the whole kidnapping thing, probably wouldn’t make her any more inclined to trust Mako.

After a few bites, she set down both knife and fork and lifted her chin, turning to look at Mako. “Would you, by any chance, have a napkin?”

“A wh—oh!” Mako pulled out her handkerchief and held it out. Ami reached for it, but she yanked it away again suddenly before her fingers closed around the fabric, blurting, “Wait—I just remembered I haven’t washed it since… um… since.”

Realization sparked across her face. She nodded slowly and dropped her hands to her lap again, back as straight as ever. “May I use something else, then…?”

“Ah—here,” Baldy leaned across the table, holding out his own white handkerchief. “Mine is clean.” He offered a friendly smile.

Pegleg gasped, apparently scandalized. “Master, you can’t give out your belongings so freely! You will be taken advantage of!” he cried.

Ami looked more uncomfortable than before, if that was possible. “It’s fine,” Mako assured her. “He’s always like that.”

Still, she hesitated. Baldy nodded and widened his smile. “You can take it; I’ve got more.” He shushed Pegleg, waving the handkerchief until she reached up and took it.

“Thank you.” Baldy grinned and sat back down. Mako bit back a similar expression herself as Ami carefully touched the fabric to the corners of her mouth. “If you would like, I can clean it again before I return it to you…?”

He chuckled. “Oh, that’s fine, you don’t have to worry about that. Leggy can take care of it!”

Pegleg reddened slightly at the name. “I would be honored to be entrusted with Master’s belongings,” he mumbled.

Mako straightened her tricorn and swiped a loose strand of hair away from her face. “If you don’t want to eat the rest right now, we can put it away for later,” she suggested. She watched Ami consider this, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully.

Something twisted in her chest without warning at the sight. Alarmed, she turned her head to cough into her elbow—it helped, a little.

“I… I think I’m alright.”

“You’re sure? You didn’t even have half of it,” Mako pointed out, brow knit. “Don’t they have food at the palace?”

For a moment, she thought she saw the flicker of a genuine smile, but it turned wooden almost immediately. “Yes, of course. I don’t believe I need anything else though. I think I’d like to go now, if that’s permitted?”

Caught off guard, Mako blinked. “Well, yeah, of course it is, you’re free to go wherever—”

“—as long as the ship is not docked. I remember.” Ami smiled again and stood. “Where is the kitchen? I need to thank the chef.”

“Rattler made it tonight,” Baldy said helpfully, taking his handkerchief back from her as she held it out to him. “Cooking duty rotates between him and the captain.”

She tilted her head. “I see. Thank you.” Mako watched, surprised, as she made her way lightly around the room to where Rattler was sitting. His entire table fell silent. She couldn’t quite hear what Ami said from the other side of the room, but from Rattler’s high, snaking laugh and the way Illis slapped her knee next to him, it wasn’t quite the _great job on the grub_ the crew usually delivered. She covered her mouth to hide a snort at the confused look on Ami’s face.

“Wot the ’ell’s a kyull-een-arry value, eh?” Rattler shrieked through his laughter, grabbing at her to steady himself when he nearly fell off the stool. Ami ducked her head, shoulders coming up defensively. “Issat a tip? I ain’t ne’er been tipped for my cookin’! Oi! Cap’n!” He hooted and turned, banging his palms on the table to get Mako’s attention. “You picked up a real sweet’art!”

Mako rolled her eyes and shouted back, “Leave her alone, Rattler; she was trying to say something nice about your garbage—if you would follow my damn recipe maybe next time _I’ll_ say something nice about it too!” This was met with ‘ooo’s and peals of laughter. Rattler cackled and thumbed his nose, sitting back down with a loud scrape.

She started to apologize to Ami, but found with a start that she was gone.

* * *

 

Sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, Ami swiped at her face, hands trembling. She’d been fine with the noise, fine with the watered-down dumplings, fine with the captain’s apparent need to remind her how she’d gotten here, even fine with the use of a strange man’s handkerchief, but the laughter had been too much. She hadn’t even finished her sentence when the rail-thin man with the heavy hands had burst out in a great guffaw and clutched at her skirt, demanding she repeat herself. When he’d turned his attention to Captain Kino, she had slipped out the door and run back to her room, bolting the door shut behind her with her heart pounding erratically behind her ribs.

She pulled her knees to her chest, back against the wall, and squeezed her eyes shut. She could have done it if he hadn’t touched her—that was the most frightening part, how easy they all seemed with each other, how physical; none of the courtiers were ever so… so _jovial_. One shook hands, touched shoulders sympathetically in the most extreme cases, but never with the rough familiarity these people used with each other.

It didn’t make any _sense_.

They were supposed to be ruthless and terrifying, not mocking and casually intimate. She’d braced herself for violence and mayhem, but she hadn’t been prepared for the laughter and the touching. Ami let out a breath and dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, listening to the sounds of the ocean outside the ship.

The waves lapping at the wooden sides were steady, quiet. She concentrated on the water until her pulse matched the calmer rhythm. There, she told herself when she could relax her shoulders again. At least she wasn’t shaking anymore. She just needed a little space, that was all. Too many of them, too much noise, too close.

Something skittered across the floor next to her, and she leapt to her feet, stumbling once with a lurch of the ship. She grabbed at one of the posts holding up the little hammock and clung to it as she twisted around to see what had startled her.

A book of matches lay in the middle of the floor, a foot or two away from the door. Ami stared at it for a moment, then looked up. The door was still closed and bolted the way she’d had it. Outside, the wooden floor creaked as someone’s weight shifted, and then a set of gingerly-quiet footsteps faded away.

Scrawled in dark ink across the front of the matchbook was just a crudely drawn smiling face.

* * *

 

“Minako, there is nothing I would love more than to make the princess happy,” Rei insisted. “I would just as soon believe this whole mess isn’t what it looks like, but if it _is_ and I miss it—”

“— that would be much worse, yes, yes,” Mina waved a hand dismissively, reaching for a bottle on the nightstand to take a swig. She set it down after a long pause. “I’m glad you’re having fun with my old job, dear, but you really shouldn’t get so worked up about it. I think you’ve made the right decision. It’s best to cover all your bases. The princess will be okay with it eventually; she just needs time. And you need to go to bed at a reasonable hour. You don’t even know which pirates are responsible, if it even _is_ pirates.”

Rei scowled and climbed into bed with a huff. “The door was torn off one of its hinges and the knob was crushed. It wasn’t a professional thief or we would have never known, even if they were working with the treasurer. You’ve met her; tiny little thing, couldn’t have done that to a door in a hundred years. But they made it past all my guards undetected, so not complete amateurs. Pirates are inelegant thieves, but they’re smart.”

“You think too much.” Mina sighed, rolling over to snuggle into the dark-haired woman. “And you should stop scowling; you’re going to fall asleep like that and I’ll have to wake up to an even uglier face than usual.”

Rei’s frown deepened. “I’m not scowling.”

“Yes you are.”

“You’re not even looking. Your eyes are closed.” She huffed again. “I hate you.”

Minako smiled, eyes still shut. “Yeah, right.”


	3. she blinded me with science

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

The first week was slow-going. Mako nervously looked for the palace girl during the day, hoping to get a chance to talk to her—maybe she could explain some more things, even if she didn’t want to talk long. She did still come sit by Mako at mealtimes, but she didn’t say much, just smiled her polite little smile and nodded, stood and thanked whoever had made the food, and disappeared again. She did seem to like the food better when it was Mako’s turn to make it, which was quickly becoming a secret source of pride for Mako.

Then, exactly seven days since they’d been at sea, Mako turned around from scrubbing chalk off the main mast, and she was right there, head tilted and sea-damp hair plastered to her cheeks and neck. “Holy—” Mako bit down hard on her tongue to prevent herself from swearing and instead laughed, the sound awkwardly high and thin. “What are you—?”

“What are you doing?” Her voice was soft, and there was something about the sweetness of her tone that made Mako want, very suddenly, to listen to her for hours.

She swallowed and held up the sponge, saying sheepishly, “Er, Pegleg wrote ‘B+P’ on the mast again, so I was just cleaning it up…”

“Won’t he do it again?”

“Uh. Yeah, probably, but he’ll need the room to do it again here. He just does that sometimes when he’s really… overcome with emotion. We had to get him chalk so he’d stop carving into things with his knife,” she tried to joke, but Ami looked at her with a sort of blank seriousness until her nervous laughter died. “A-anyway. Did you—do you need something? Do you want me to get you anything?”

Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Ami shook her head. “I wanted… I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

“With the cleaning?”

“Yes, if that’s what you need me to do.” Her shoulders lifted as a small, hesitant smile turned up the corners of her mouth. A _real_ smile.

Mako wet her lips. “We-ell, um, I just finished here, but if you want, I can—show you around the ship or something?”

She brightened at that. “You mean you could teach me…?”

“Sailing? Or just ship stuff?”

The look on her face was the most excited Mako had seen her yet. “Oh, yes, all of it!”

“All of it?” Laughing, she dropped the sponge into the bucket of soapy saltwater and wiped her palms on her thighs. “Yeah, yeah, sure! I’ll show you whatever you want.” She held out a hand with a grin. “We can start at the top and work down; the top is up there, that’s the little platform there, see, and it’s got a really great view.”

Ami hesitated, looking from her to her outstretched hand and back uncertainly. “I’ll—I’ll follow you,” she said finally, and Mako dropped her hand back to her side in understanding.

“Sounds good,” she smiled back, then swung herself up onto the rigging to climb up. “The crow’s nest is up higher, over there, but we don’t need to go there if you don’t want.” Mako paused when she realized she wasn’t being followed and looked down, breaking into a laugh when she saw Ami jumping in vain for the rigging. At the flush that rose over her face, Mako came back down far enough to hold out her hand again. “Try taking your boots off, too; you’ll have an easier time without the extra bulk on your feet. And you’ll have to take off—uh, I mean, we should find you some pants instead of the skirt.”

Leaving the boots, Ami raised her eyebrows and looked up. “I think I’ll keep all my clothes on for now. But thank you.” She jumped again, and Mako caught her by the wrists, laughing as she helped her up onto the tangle of rope.

“No, no, I didn’t mean to suggest—” She caught sight of a smile before Ami covered her mouth with one hand. “Are you…?”

“Am I what?”

Mako shook her head, a delighted grin spreading over her face. If she’d known all she had to do to get her to even try making a joke was offer to show her around, she would have done it ages ago. “Nothing. Here, stick close and watch your balance.”

She tried to have something new to show her every day from then on, and they spent the days together more often than not. Watching Ami enraptured by things that were so familiar was like being introduced to her own ship all over again. Something about the sheer excitement on her face over things like the bowsprit or the logs made Mako laugh. She was a quick learner, too. “You pick things up fast,” Mako told her once, impressed by a particularly well-done bow-line knot.

Ami just smiled. “I like to learn.”

* * *

 

One morning, two or three weeks into the voyage to wherever it was they were going, Ami awoke with a jolt to the sounds of shouting, running footsteps, and something exploding overhead. She scrambled out of the hammock, landing on the floor with a soft thump, and pulled herself to her feet again to run to the door. She yanked it open just as Captain Kino ran past, carrying a barrel of gunpowder with seemingly no effort.

“Stay down here!” the captain barked at her as she flew past. “It’s nothing! This happens all the time!”

“ _What_ happens all the time?”

“Nothing! It’s fine!” She bounded up the stairs to the deck and disappeared from sight.

Ami grabbed onto the doorframe as another explosion rocked the ship. Pegleg appeared at the top of the stairs without a sound. He was halfway down the steps when he seemed to realize she was there and immediately pointed at her. “You! We need a powder monkey!”

“A what?”

“Hurry!” he ordered. “We are under attack!” Without explaining anything, he turned and bounded back up to the deck.

“Wait—” Ami made it to the stairs before another explosion hit and threw her against the wall. “What am I supposed to be doing? What’s going on?”

“Why did you let them get so close?” came the captain’s frustrated shout. “This is going to take weeks to repair when we land!”

“Can we focus on—hngh—getting out of here before we think about repairs?” another voice demanded. She was mostly sure it belonged to the big man, Brutus. “And t’weren’t my fault the others’re using smaller ships now—”

“Where is the powder monkey?” Pegleg yelled.

“We don’t have one!”

Ami grit her teeth and climbed halfway up the stairs, leaning out onto the deck. “Excuse me—what is going on and what do I do?”

Captain Kino stopped abruptly and spun around. “You! You, you, you stay put; you don’t know anything and you’re tiny, you’ll get hurt,” she pointed urgently back down below deck.

She stood a little straighter, indignant. “I know plenty of things by now. Just tell me what needs doing.”

From over by the cannons, Pegleg set off one and turned to her, shouting, “I need gunpowder brought up here!”

“She’s not going to know where that—”

“Down the hall and to the right,” Ami interrupted. “I’ll get it.”

Pegleg was busy manning the cannons still, but as Ami ran down the stairs again to get the gunpowder, she heard him say, “ _Now_ we have a powder monkey.”

* * *

 

They got away, finally, but only after Mako swung herself aboard the other ship with Brutus and Baldy, and the close-combat fighting had been very clearly in their favor. Baldy had tossed a few men overboard, Brutus had found their captain, and Mako had gotten to knock some heads together. The other crew had been very… understanding after that.

She slouched now against the broken railing of the deck, staring at the warped wood of the deck below her. Late afternoon, already. Funny how time flew when there was so much excitement happening.

A pair of dirty brown boots appeared next to her. “Captain.”

Mako lifted her head and managed to crack a tired smile at the sight. “Sorry. You’re—”

“—disgusting, yes, I know,” Ami nodded seriously. “It’s been quite some time now and I have yet to find any place on this ship to bathe properly. I don't know that seawater and bar soap will do as much good as I'd like this time.” She sat down carefully next to Mako and, seeming hesitant, wiped her gunpowder-coated palms on her skirt. It was just as filthy as the rest of her; the gesture did almost nothing. “It didn’t help that I spilled so much of it. I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

With a laugh, Mako shook her head. “Hey, you did just fine. And you’re not disgusting. Trust me. Rat is disgusting. He got the name for a reason.” On impulse she reached up and dropped her hat lightly onto Ami’s head, dislodging a little puff of black powder that went skittering down the bridge of her nose. At the look of surprise Ami gave her, she smiled. “You made a pretty good powder monkey. For palace stock, you know.”

“Oh, thank you.” She paused, straightening the hat a little and swiping a strand of windswept hair away from her cheek. “So those were other pirates.”

“Ha! Yeah, what did you think?” Mako grinned and elbowed her gently. “Were they more like your stories?”

She nodded, slow and thoughtful. “The black flag, and the unprovoked attack, and the…” Gesturing vaguely, she glanced over at Mako, seeming embarrassed. “Well—they… you don’t look—grizzled,” she said finally; “they looked, um, uniformly grizzled.”

“Grizzled, I see.” Smirking, Mako waved a hand. “You don’t think we look like pirates? We aren’t grimy or hardened enough for you?”

“No, no, that isn’t what I meant! Just—just that they were all generally in the same stage of, of, well. You’re sort of the polite kind of pirates, you’re cleaner and—and nicer,” Ami hurriedly tried to amend. Mako laughed and pointedly dusted some gunpowder off the front of her shirt. Ami hesitated a moment, looking down. “…I am serious, though; where do you bathe?”

Mako looked at her for a moment. “W…ell… we can’t exactly ‘run you a bath’ like your royalty would—”

“That’s fine. As long as I can get clean, at this point, really.”

“If you want your clothes washed too, you can probably fit into some of Patch’s until this is done drying,” she offered. “I mean. As dry as anything gets out here, which is only sort of.”

“That’s fine too.”

“…and it’s just seawater we’ve got, fresh water is for cooking since we only have so much of it—”

“What?” Ami stood abruptly. “No, no, you can get fresh water out of seawater. Show me what you’ve got.”

Mako pulled herself to her feet, confused. “Well, I mean, we’ve got a bucket, and we’ve got a couple sponges, and we’ve got seawater in the bucket…”

“Show me,” she insisted again. Mako gave up and lead her down to the back of the ship.

She gestured. “Like I said, it’s not a lot; I don’t know what you want to do with it.” Mako spoke too soon, she realized. She could almost see gears turning in the other woman’s head.

“I need a fire, something I can use as tubing, and beakers—jars? You have jars, yes?”

“Er, yes.” Mako squinted at her uncertainly. “Why?”

Ami rubbed her hands together, half a league away already. “To desalinate the water,” she said absently, as if that clarified anything.

It did not, in fact, clarify anything.

Mako went to get her some jars.

* * *

 

“C’mon, Patch, it’ll just be for a couple days or so,” Mako coaxed gently. “I’ll make sure you get your clothes back once hers are washed.”

Patch scowled, arms folded, her good eye narrowed. “I d’no… I mean, what’m I s’posed to get from it? And s’not like I’ve got anything close to fancy silks and stuff,” she muttered, more than a touch of resentment in her voice. “Prob’ly she’s too _good_ for britches ‘nd shit.”

“ _Patch_.”

“M’just sayin’.” She shrugged. “She can borrow somethin’ if _she_ asks. You askin’ for her don’t count, cap’n, no offense or nothin’.”

Mako sighed and ruffled the teenager’s curly hair affectionately. “Okay. Thanks, Patch.”

“Nothin’ doin’, cap.” Patch waved her off with one brown hand.

“Check on Illis before you get to bed, will you? I know the Colonel said it was just scrapes and bruising, but I’d rather not take any chances. Tell her I’ll be by later tonight, too; I have to go see if the… jars and stuff worked for… whatever it is.” Patch nodded, and Mako gave her a smile. “Thanks. You’re the best, Patch.”

“Yeah, I know.” The teenager grinned in spite of herself. “Have fun with the jars.”

Mako shook her head with a laugh, reaching up to adjust her ponytail as she walked off to return to where she’d left Ami to her own devices. Approaching the room, she heard voices and slowed. Who…? Serenity. Was that Baldy and Pegleg talking to her?

“…could do this quite simply, you see.”

“What? Leggy, no way, I wouldn’t have known to do any of this. This is really cool.”

“But, Master, surely in time…”

Ami’s softer voice filled in the silence as Pegleg trailed off. “This question has been with me for a while, but… may I ask why you call him Master? Aren’t you both relatively close in rank among the crew? Or does your crew have a different hierarchy than the typical naval crew?”

Pegleg audibly perked up. “Ah! Actually, you see, it is a rather long story, which begins when we were both several years younger. I became separated from my family during a storm at sea. Lost in the waves, I feared for my life, and would have certainly drowned were it not for —”

“I just pulled him out of the water,” Baldy interrupted, sounding embarrassed.

“He saved my life! I owe him a great debt, greater than I will ever be able to repay! I am indebted to him, and so I have placed myself in his service.”

“Anybody else would have done the same thing…”

“But it was not anybody else who did it, Master, it was you!”

Mako huffed. This would be going on for a while if she didn’t stop it. “Hey,” she called, knocking on the door. “How’s the thing going? The sun’s gone down, so—”

The door swung open abruptly. Brutus stared back at her with a sheepish smile. “Hi, cap’n,” he mumbled.

“Brutus? What are you doing in here?”

“Oh—he was helping me. I’m sorry, if you need him elsewhere I’m sure one of the others can fill in.” Ami hopped down off the stool she’d been standing on, coming over and looking apologetic.

Makoto looked from her to Brutus to the thing they’d been working on for hours. “Uh. No, I don’t… what is that?”

From where he was holding something in place—Mako wasn’t exactly sure what—Pegleg declared, “It is for a process called distillation! Miss Mizuno has devised an apparatus which will separate the salt from the seawater! Truly, this technology is revolutionary!”

Ami looked embarrassed. “Well—I—this is extremely rudimentary at best,” she stuttered, cheeks reddening. “It’s done much more efficiently and less crudely back—back… back home.”

“Then Master will easily be able to improve upon it,” Pegleg said gravely.

“What? Leggy, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Giving them both a look to shut them up, Mako gestured to the contraption. “Looks good to me. Does it work?”

“Yes—yes,” Ami nodded. “It’s a slow process because it’s not professionally constructed and there wasn’t really enough material to construct it on a larger scale, but it does work!” She showed Mako the bucket at Baldy’s feet. “There’s just enough right now for a set of clothes to be washed, or perhaps with the use of a sponge two or three people could bathe—separately—unless things are done communally—”

Mako took pity on her and interrupted to stop her from stumbling over her words any further. “Alright, great! I’ll find something else for these guys to do while you take care of that. But you’ll have to talk to Patch first about clothes; she wanted you to, uh,” she felt her shoulders lifting awkwardly, “…to pick something out yourself?”

Ami blinked. Then, after a beat, her eyes lit with recognition. “Oh! Yes, of course! Yes. Where will I find her?”

Mako gave her directions, ushering her out the door. As soon as she was gone, she turned back to the three men, arms folded, and gave them all a look. “Brutus, I’m trusting you to be honest with me. Did it take this long because _certain people_ wouldn’t shut up long enough to let her ask for whatever it was you were supposed to be doing?”

Brutus tugged on his earlobe uncomfortably. “I don’t believe so, cap’n; Miss Mizuno was very focused and didn’t really seem to mind—”

“Do you mean to say that throughout my relation of Master’s various exploits no one was paying attention?” Pegleg interrupted, sounding both horrified and offended.

Baldy squinted at him in confusion. “…those were supposed to be about me? I haven’t done any of that stuff. I’ve never even _seen_ a giant squid.”

Mako pinched the bridge of her nose and resisted the urge to yank Pegleg’s metal leg right off. “ _Serenity_. Okay, first of all, I’m sure she was paying attention because she’s basically always paying attention, so if I hear about you trying to get into it with her over this, I _will_ stop making those crabs you like that Rattler always screws up.”

Pegleg gasped. Baldy made a faint, disappointed sound.

“Secondly, while your stories are very… imaginative, I’m sure everyone on this ship would appreciate it if you figured out they have a time and place which is not all the time and everywhere.” There was silence for a moment before she pointed to the door. “Alright, that’s it. Everybody out. We’re done here.”

Brutus, Baldy, and Pegleg filed out the door, the latter grumbling under his breath but going along despite it. Mako turned back to the wobbly contraption and sighed. It clearly worked, even though it looked like it was suffering some structural integrity without anyone holding it together right now; the more she thought about it, the more useful it seemed. Saltwater stung and was more bitter than fresh water, but it was easier to get saltwater at sea, for obvious reasons. Being able to separate the salt from the water was… well, a younger her might have called it magic.

“It’s just science,” came a voice from behind her. “But I think… I think magic is something like science we just can’t understand yet, really.” Realizing she’d been thinking aloud, Mako turned to see Ami in the doorway, a small smile on her face and a set of neatly folded clothes in her arms. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No, no, you didn’t, you’re good.” Mako nodded to the wooden tub in the corner and started to leave. “I’ll get out of your way so you can get clean.”

“Wait—”

Mako stopped, turning around curiously. “Yeah?”

Chewing uncertainly on her lower lip, Ami set the clothes down, fingers twisting each other. “I don’t suppose the towels are in here as well?” she asked, hesitant.

“The…? Oh. Oh, no,” Mako shook her head. “I mean, they don’t really do much good; you’ve noticed everything is wet all the time anyway. If you really want something we’ve got the kitchen towels, which are maybe a little better…?”

“Oh—no, that’s fine.” Ami dipped her head. “Thank you.”

She gave her a smile and grabbed the door handle. “Don’t worry about it! Just leave your clothes in here when you’re done; Dez will take care of them. Have fun!” Mako shut the door before she could get a reply and immediately made a face at herself. _Have fun_? What the hell was that? Serenity. She shook her head. It didn’t matter, she told herself. They’d be at port again soon; she had bigger things to worry about.


	4. that gal with a blue dress on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...featuring my attempt at remembering my fourth grade teacher's explanation of the distillation process. (Sorry, Mrs. K.) Thanks for reading!

“Now what are you scowling about, you big grump?” Minako drawled without looking up from the map.

Rei’s scowl deepened. “I’m not scowling.” She folded her arms, starting to pace behind Mina’s chair. “It’s been _weeks_. The only lead we have is the fisherman who claims he saw a woman matching Kino’s description boarding a ship with a man and another woman, quote, ‘in tow,’ then saw the ship start to head west. I’ve got some of the navy out there, but—”

Minako did look up then, eyebrows raised. “West?” Rei realized what she was thinking. When Mina had been captain of the guard, she had come close several times to catching Captain Kino—less impressive than it sounded, she knew, because most of the stories about her were fabricated or other pirates’ doings pinned on her—but without fail, the pirate had always managed to disappear out west: ship, crew, and all. It didn’t help that storms seemed to follow the _Rose and Thorn_ as if drawn to it.

They had long suspected there was some hidden cove or the like where Kino and her lot went to hide after a particularly big heist, but they’d never been able to locate it. After a theft of this level, though, Rei was determined that they would find it, and they would get to the bottom of this whole thing, and then maybe the princess would stop crying. Rei was getting too many letters a day asking about progress, featuring Usagi’s poorly drawn self-portraits showing exactly how much she _was_ crying, mostly over having _no friends to talk to anymore, Rei_ , which Rei seriously doubted, as the princess made friends more easily than she walked.

“We’re staying off the water,” she said finally. “The navy has that covered. But we—I want to keep following the coastline on land. We’ll just have to pick up the pace. She is not disappearing so easily this time.”

* * *

 

Everyone was fascinated by the thing, as Mako was sure they should be. She tried at first to keep them from bothering Ami too much about it—because that would be honestly the worst, to first have her make this thing for them and then badger her to death for explanations about it—but she didn’t seem to mind the attention as long as it stayed focused on the thing and not on her. (“The _distillation_ thing,” Patch would correct anyone who said it wrong with such an air of seriousness that it was hard not to laugh. She hit anyone who did laugh at her, though, which made it a little easier.)

“Why’s it need the fire?” Rattler asked, half through his nose, eyes narrowed as he leaned against the wall.

Ami looked up with a smile from the piece she was fiddling with. “The heat causes the water to evaporate.”

“Evaporate?” Patch hopped, trying to see around Brutus.

“Yes, the liquid becomes a gas—”

“What? Why? Why does it need do that?”

Adjusting the bucket on the end, she sat back on her heels thoughtfully. “Well, it’s part of the water cycle. Water heated to a boil evaporates into steam; steam cooled to a certain point condensates into water again.” Several nods—that much was common knowledge. “Salt doesn’t evaporate, though, so in short, we’re evaporating the water into steam and transferring the steam to the cooler, empty bucket to condensate back into a liquid, leaving the salt behind back at the beginning.”

Rattler leaned forward to get a better look at the thing, and Mako stood a little straighter when Ami tensed. “Hey,” she said suddenly, grabbing him by the shoulder and yanking him back, out of the way, “move your big head, Rattler; you’re blocking the view for the rest of us.” She flashed a reassuring grin at Ami. She looked surprised, then reddened and turned her attention hurriedly back to the thing. Mako was pretty sure it didn’t need any more fiddling.

“Oi, lay off it, cap’n,” Rattler complained. “I jus’ wan’ed to see th’ thing.”

Patch shouted indignantly from somewhere still behind Brutus. “The _distillation_ thing!”

“Alright, alright, whatever! Back to work; you’re all being smothering and if we get attacked again we will actually sink! The Colonel is good at what he does but everyone has their limits.” Mako stepped forward, trying to usher them all away. “This room is _not_ big enough for everyone.”

She glanced over her shoulder as they started to grumblingly shuffle towards the door, and for half a breath she locked eyes with Ami, still sitting back on her heels. Mako couldn’t read the expression on her face before she looked away again; something tight in her chest whispered the impulse to smooth her furrowed brow and say _tell me again about science and magic_. She told it to shut up.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

She coughed awkwardly and leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “They weren’t bothering you…? I know sometimes they can get a little overexcited and there’s not a lot of—you said personal space was a big thing—”

Ami shook her head, getting to her feet. “No, it was fine.” She hesitated. “…thank you.”

* * *

 

She was on her third match when she heard the captain’s footsteps, heavy but quiet. “Do you want some help with those?”

“They’re wet,” was all Ami said, teeth grinding in frustration. The little smiling face drawn on the matchbox stared up at her in silent mocking.

Laughter. “Yeah. I told you, nothing stays dry very long out here. Sorry… I can give it a try if you want.”

She handed over the box of matches wordlessly and sighed, head tipping back to look up at the night sky. “Captain Kino…”

The taller woman sat down next to her, glancing over with an amused smile. “Hey, you don’t have to call me that. Just Mako is fine.” She tried to strike another match, failing.

Ami wet her lips, trying out the name. “Mako,” she said. Her voice came out softer than she’d meant for it to. Beside her, Mako froze for half a second before the box of matches slipped from her fingers.

“Oh—damn, sorry—” She snatched the box back up and hunched over it intently, trying again to light one, face hidden. “So—so what did you want?”

Ami pulled her eyes away from the brown ponytail and returned her gaze to the sky. “What are you doing out here? I… thought everyone else had gone to bed.”

“What are _you_ doing out here?”

“I like the water.” She closed her eyes briefly, trying to bring up in her mind the map of the stars she’d studied in the library. Was that only last month? It felt years away. “It’s calm. And,” she hesitated as she tried to pinpoint a star she knew, any star. There. Rigel. That would do. “I thought it would be a nice night to look at the stars.”

Something skritched, and then Mako was holding a small flame and beaming proudly. “I got it! What was this for?”

Ami reached out for it, unable to stop a smile. “Thank you. I just thought it would be better to have a little bit of heat…”

“Oh, yeah! Why didn’t you just say so?” Mako peeled off her long coat and reached around her to wrap it around her shoulders, shushing her protests. “No, no, I’m good, really.” She settled back and looked up. “So what are we looking at?”

Cupping one hand around the flame of the match, Ami tilted her head, finding Rigel again. “Well, I suppose you already know most of what’s up there for navigational purposes.”

“Sure. Maybe not the official names, but we can tell where we’re going. But you probably have some fancier names for everything, right? Tell me.”

She hesitated, then pointed up at the sky. “You see that one, there, the big one? And the three in a row a little above it, and then the other big one above those? That’s the Hunter. Right underneath him is the Hare, those stars there; you see how it looks like he’s hunting it? Then there, up above him, that’s the Bull…” The more she talked, the easier the words came, and the more she remembered. The Twins. The Lion. The Dragon. Ami pointed out constellations and stars as she recalled them, trying at first to adhere to some kind of order, but it proved easier to just show them to Mako as she thought of them.

She trailed off when she realized the curious questions had stopped coming. Worried she’d lost her, she turned back to the woman beside her, caught off-guard to find Mako looking back at her with an unreadable expression in her eyes and a faint smile. For a moment, the only sounds were those of the ocean. The coat around her shoulders suddenly felt twice as solid as she became suddenly and vividly aware of just how close they were sitting.

“You’re… not paying attention,” Ami whispered finally, not trusting herself to speak any louder and not entirely sure why.

“I am.”

The match in her hand flickered and faded as the last of the little stick burnt out. “Mako,” she said again. She found nothing to follow it with, so she tried again. “Mako.”

“Hmm?” came the quiet response, and something twisted in her stomach. Mako lifted a hand to brush her hair gently away from her face, tentative. She almost didn’t realize it as her head tipped slowly into the touch, eyes flickering closed. The air smelled of sea spray and salt, but she’d never noticed the faint scent of roses before. She felt herself lean in, just barely—

And a loud peal of laughter rang out suddenly, jolting Ami to her feet and six steps away before she even realized she’d reacted. Mako was standing too, looking around wildly. “I—I should go, it’s late—thank you for—everything—good night, M— _captain_!” she babbled, and before the captain could do anything to respond, Ami was darting below deck, heart hammering and heat flooding her face. By the time she was leaning against the door of her room and remembering that she was still wearing the captain’s coat, the heat had spilled down her neck and into her chest.

Even with the rocking of the ship and the sounds of the sea outside, it took her a long, long time to get to sleep.

* * *

 

There was no sign of where the interruption had come from. Mako couldn’t find anyone else on deck, not up at the helm, not—

There it came again, a loud guffaw. From above, she realized, looking up. Her eyes narrowed at the sight of something moving from the platform of the top. “Hey!”

Silence. Then two heads appeared, cautiously looking down. “Oh, uh… hi, captain,” Baldy said sheepishly. “What are you doing?”

“It doesn’t matter what I’m doing; what are you two doing?” she demanded.

“Well, you know, it’s rare for us to have gone this long without a storm—usually storms hit us every three or four days for some reason—and it’s not really cloudy tonight, so I suggested that maybe Leggy would want to go take a look at the sky.”

Pegleg nodded gravely. “I was telling some of the stories associated with the various patterns in the stars.”

“Yeah, he comes up with the best stories!”

“I did not invent these legends! They were taught to me before I was lost at sea and subsequently rescued by you, Master,” he insisted.

Mako shook her head slowly. “That… sounds nice,” she said. She looked down, realizing she was still holding Ami’s half-empty matchbox, and found the little happy face she’d drawn on it. “Yeah. Okay.” She dragged her other hand down her face and gave them a smile. “Don’t be late to breakfast.”

“We would never,” Pegleg said seriously.

Turning away to go, she went to put the matchbox in her coat pocket. Mako stopped and looked down. She’d given her coat to Ami. Which was fine, she wasn’t cold—at least not yet, and she wouldn’t be once she got back to her quarters.

Mako closed the door quietly behind her and set the matchbox on her desk. Sprawled out across the bed, arms folded behind her head, she closed her eyes and tried to think of anything except wide blue eyes and cool skin under her fingertips.

It didn’t work.


	5. if I could I'd do it over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

It was her morning to make breakfast; Rattler had deck duty, and he was supposed to be using some of the fresh water that had been building up thanks to Ami’s thing with the jars. Mako hoped he remembered not to use all of it since it took so long to get much.

First things first, though, she told herself as she rolled her sleeves up and tied on the stained apron that hung on the back of the galley door. As she started the stove and went to retrieve some eggs, her thoughts kept wandering back to the events of the night before. Part of her wondered what might have happened if Baldy hadn’t laughed when he did, and why something in her chest fluttered and dropped at the thought.

Another part was preoccupied with the scene from the top. They had looked so comfortable—of course, she knew Pegleg and Baldy were closer than anyone else on the crew, and she hadn’t exactly been _surprised_ to find them lying tangled up together like that (alright, well, yes, she had, but she acknowledged that she shouldn’t really have been). Mako hoped whatever they were doing worked out well for them.

“Captain?”

She turned her head, eyebrows raised, at the stiff voice. Pegleg stood uncomfortably in the doorway of the kitchen. “You wanted to help make breakfast…?”

“No,” he said bluntly. “I came to request your discretion about the events of last night. My master is… I do not want to embarrass him.”

“You think he’s embarrassed of you?” She wiggled the pan over the flame. When there was no response, she reached for the stack of plates. “He didn’t seem embarrassed to me last night.”

“He has a naturally cool demeanor,” Pegleg replied, stony-faced. “He does not show when he is perturbed or flustered as others do.”

Shrugging, Mako flipped the eggs. “If that’s what you think.”

“Where is your coat?”

A piece of egg hit the floor with a splat. She swore and bent down to scoop it up and throw it away. “It’s—uh—it’s hot in here,” she muttered. If that answer didn’t satisfy him, she didn’t give him time to show it. “Will you round everyone up? It’s nearly ready.”

He bowed his head and left.

Breakfast passed normally, for the most part. Mako couldn’t figure out why it felt like something was wrong until she realized it was the empty chair beside her. She looked around—Ami was over by Patch, listening intently to what appeared to be a very animated story from the teenager. She was very determinedly not looking at Mako.

She was also not wearing Mako’s coat.

It was just back in her cabin, she told herself. Of course she didn’t want to bring it to her here; that would lead to questions, and from the way Ami had bolted last night, questions from the crew were not exactly welcome. Which made sense, because nothing had happened, and it would be awkward to try to tell this lot there was nothing when they suspected there was something. Which there wasn’t. Mako nodded to herself and tore a chunk of bread off her roll with her teeth.

If anyone noticed she said less during breakfast than usual, they didn’t comment on it. She was the last to leave, save Dez, whose eye was twitching at the stack of dishes dumped by the sink. They would be docking today if Spoons had done his job right—and he always did. The wind was stronger than she would have liked; she’d have to have them all get ready for kedging, but for now, she needed to get her hat before she went up on deck proper, and maybe if she could figure out how to get her coat back discreetly it would be better for…

Mako paused, hand still on the handle of her door, staring. There at the foot of her bed, folded neatly and underneath a scrap of paper, was her coat. She turned to her dresser, not really surprised to see that the matchbook was gone. Not entirely sure why she suddenly felt embarrassed, she sat down, squinting at the scrap of paper.

Well… whatever Ami had written, it looked pretty. She recognized an ‘m,’ she thought. Brutus could have told her what it said, but it didn’t take any thought at all to decide against asking someone to read it for her. She’d just hold onto it. Or something. She was pretty sure it was a very nice note. (But what if it wasn’t? What if it was something angry, or worse, sad? What if she needed something but couldn’t ask for it face to face?) Mako worried over what it could say, staring at the neat little shapes until her eyes watered.

Surely—surely if it was something really, really important she would just tell her, she tried to convince herself. She swallowed nervously and tucked it into a drawer, then pulled her coat into her lap. Wow. She’d never been able to get it folded this small. She almost felt bad about taking it apart to wear it again.

* * *

 

“…and this’s where we’re headed,” drawled the skinny little man, his well-groomed moustache bobbing as he spoke. He tapped a spot on the map. “Town’s out of the way, got a tiny little port, real friendly people. Not real big, but the market’s got all kinds of fun crap. Might be able to find your map there.”

Ami nodded slowly, leaning on the wide table and peering curiously at where Spoons had indicated. “Does it have a name?”

“A-yup.” Spoons stroked his moustache as he bounded back to the wheel.

“There isn’t a name written on the map.”

“A-nope.”

“…why not?”

His easy demeanor slipping, he waved a hand at her over his shoulder. “Go on, get now. The pass here’s narrow, can’t have any distractions.”

Ami studied the map thoughtfully. “Nothing is labelled by name. Doesn’t that make it hard to navigate properly?” she wondered aloud.

“ _Shoo_ , girlie.”

She pushed herself away from the table and left, going instead out onto the main deck. It was busier than usual—Patch had told her over breakfast that they’d be making a stop today, and the teenager had seemed excited, but so far even she had been elusive about the exact destination. Ami had finally gone in to see Spoons, thinking that as the man responsible for getting them to wherever they were going, he would likely know the place, but he’d clammed up the same way everyone else she’d spoken to had done.

Maybe there was somewhere she could be that was out of the way but would also let her have a better idea of where, exactly, they were going. Yes, somewhere a little higher, maybe, but without anything extremely important that would need to be handled during the docking process; she’d just focus on finding somewhere that fit those requirements.

And if it kept her from thinking too much about what had almost-but-not-quite happened last night, well, that was simply a convenient bonus.

“Yo Royal!” yelled someone from behind her impatiently. Ami spun around, half-confused until Patch waved a frantic hand at her, nearly dropping the armful of chain she was holding. “Outta the way; yer gonna get squashed!”

Ducking to the side and flattening herself against the wall, Ami tried to protest, “Patch, I’m not—I’m not—I’m not a royal—I just worked there— _work_ there—”

With a snort, Patch breezed past, dumping the chain on the deck near the edge. Roger followed after her, holding an anchor, and set it down much more carefully. “Close enough,” Patch shrugged, rubbing at her good eye. “You need a name, m’just tryin’ stuff out, yeah?”

“I… have a name,” she said, brow knit.

The teenager laughed. “You got it, Royal.”

“A nickname,” Roger rumbled with a friendly smile as he left to do… something else.

Ami felt her shoulders coming up before she could stop them, face reddening. “Oh—oh… I’ve never… I’ve never had… thank you?” she finally settled on.

Laughing again, Patch elbowed her in the ribs, dark eyes twinkling mischievously. “I think it works. ‘Sides, if you ain’t a royal, the cap wouldn’t be treating you like one, eh?” When Ami couldn’t respond, mouth opening and closing again uselessly, Patch cackled and darted off, yelling over her shoulder, “If you wanna sit by th’ anchor we only gotta use it when we get closer! Stay outta the way!”

She started to say that she would, but Patch was already out of earshot. Ami went to the edge of the ship, leaning on the taffrail and squinting out at the distant smudge that must have been the shoreline. No distinct markers, no rising skyline of a city, at least not yet. It was maybe a little far off to tell, she admitted to herself. She’d just have to sit here until they got closer. This was, after all, out of the way, and being out of the way was what she needed right now, which certainly had nothing to do with the fact that the captain would be out soon to ensure everything went smoothly.

“We are approaching at an even pace,” came a clipped, solemn voice from behind her. Pegleg appeared beside her, making sure to stare straight ahead and stand at an awkward distance that implied this was not, in fact, a conversation so much as a lecture.

Ami braced herself for another rambling tale about large sea creatures and the mysterious bald hero who fought them off.

“Your… master isn’t with you?” she asked tentatively, not really sure what answer she was hoping for.

He shook his head gravely and shifted, his false leg creaking briefly. “He is busy with the sails, as a rigger, you see. He is much better at it than Fox.”

“Oh.” She looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand, and tried to find the shapes up amidst the sails. “It looks like they’re doing a good job,” she offered.

“Yes.” He remained stoically staring out at the horizon. “However, he had to work very hard to become as good at what he does as he is, you see. He is of course very agile and nimble and has always been, but it took work for him to be able to achieve perfect balance.” Pegleg paused here, as if waiting for her to comment.

Ami swallowed. “He… seems to have excellent equilibrium,” she tried, and that seemed to satisfy him.

“Indeed. As I was saying, though, it was not always so. There was a time, soon after I realized the breadth of my feelings towards him, that he… fell.” He hesitated again, but didn’t give her time to say anything before continuing brusquely, “He was injured. It was not a terrible injury, as you see he has regained perfect health, but it gave me a great fright at the time. I witnessed him fall, you see. I felt…” Pegleg stopped again as he struggled to find the words to go on. Ami started to tell him he didn’t need to tell her anything when he found his voice again. “I felt,” he said again, more forcefully. “And so I admitted to him, during his recovery period, that I felt, and he told me that he also…”

“Felt?” she suggested uncertainly when he trailed off once again.

He nodded. “Yes.” He gripped the railing suddenly. “So it was that I realized it is far better to place feelings in the open rather than to attempt to hide them. This is a lesson I learned from him. Before him I was very closed off. I did not appreciate the benefits of opening oneself up to another until him.”

She considered this. If what she had observed so far was Pegleg being open, she couldn’t imagine what he must have been like before.

“The captain was out on the deck last night,” he said, face blank. She tried to keep her expression neutral as well, biting down hard on her lower lip.

“O-oh?” she said as calmly as she could manage.

“Yes. She is not usually one for nighttime excursions.” He waited a moment before adding casually, “The last time she roamed the ship at night was when she had a special guest aboard. He did not stay with us very long.”

Ami stared down into the waves with a newfound intensity. “I imagine he must not have been fond of the sun, then, if he preferred to be out during the dark.”

“I hope that whatever caused the captain to be out last night, and to therefore interrupt my time with my master, this new interest she has taken will prove to be a happy thing, so that whatever may have brought her up onto the deck will cause both parties involved to be as happy as I am with my master.” After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Pegleg nodded once. “Very well. That is all. Feelings such as I have for my master surely should not be repressed.” He nodded again and left without another word.

She pressed her hands to her cheeks and kept her eyes fixed on the water. Someone _must_ have seen—have seen—the thing that didn’t happen; how else would he have—unless—

“Cap’n! Good morning,” Brutus’s voice rang out from across the deck. Ami spun around in time to see Captain Kino flash a grin at the quartermaster in return and say something in response.

Then the captain turned and froze as she met her eyes. Her breath caught in her throat. Captain Kino slowly lifted a hand, waving, smile a little crooked. Her face was lit up in that way she’d come to suspect was just for her, and for a moment she was at a loss.

Ami thought of the stories of villages burned down and merchant ships sunk. She thought of the other pirates, with their scars and angry shouting and guns. She thought of green eyes and a soft smile and the scent of roses and the stars, and she caught herself before she could wave back and bolted for the stairs instead.

* * *

 

Brutus was saying something still. Mako would have to ask him to repeat it. Her smile faltered, and she looked at her palm, confused. Did that maybe mean something else she didn’t know about?

“Cap’n?” Brutus prompted.

“Brutus,” she said, sounding a little lost even to her own ears, “I think I’m scary.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it, eyebrows going up in confusion. “Uh… erm. Well, cap’n, you… may have an unwarranted reputation of… fearmongering, but you’re not really, uh, scary as one’d usually think o’ the word, ‘less you need to be, o’ course.” Awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, he added, “Sure, you’ve broken a few jaws ’nd arms, but it’s not like they didn’t have it comin’ or anything. And sure, we did have to leave that one town after your duel with the constable, but he was hurtin’ kids, so they were better off finding a new lawman anyway—”

“Thanks, Brutus. You’re _really_ uplifting.” She shook her head and cracked her knuckles. “It doesn’t matter,” Mako said, more to convince herself than him. “Come on. We’ve got a ship to land.”

It was alright, she told herself. If she had, last night, if she _had_ … if she had kissed Ami, it would have been worse, probably. She was too tall, and she was stronger than some grown men, and she was better in a fistfight than she maybe had reason to be. There was a knife in her boot and a gun on her hip. No number of sculpted little roses stabbed through her earlobes was going to change any of that, and no amount of trying was going to make a girl from the palace look at her and see anything but a pirate until she wanted to. And she’d screwed up any chance of that. She set her jaw and straightened her hat, resigned.

Makoto Kino was scary.

“Rudy, Stumpy, Greep,” she yelled, “get the anchors ready; wind’s still contrary and Fox and Baldy can only do so much with the rigging.”

They nodded and hurried off to ready the little rowboats, dumping an anchor in each one. Kedging would take longer than she wanted, but if the wind kept this up it was the only option. Mako directed Thadwick, Roger, Scout, and Rat to help from this end, assigning Verne and Patch to help the first three with the rowing. Illis she sent to check on the loot from the treasury job; the Colonel was shouting directions to those with the anchors to ensure they didn’t mess up the patch-up job he’d done for the damage to the ship; Marco had scaled the ladder to the crow’s nest and had his telescope out to watch for obstructions.

“Come on, you can do this,” she clapped her hands together. “We’ll be there in time for dinner if you’re quick enough, and then you won’t have to eat Rattler’s terrible grub!”

From over by the rode, Rattler gave a huff and an offended grunt. Mako responded with a grin.


	6. a little more lightning a little more you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are Not Good right now so here's my attempt at making it a little better. (Highly recommend listening to Fire Escape by Love, Robot as background music for the second half of this chapter...)  
> Thanks for reading! Be safe!

Standing at the top of the gangplank, Ami took in the sight of the little town carefully. It looked like it had been through a fire—the buildings had been repaired well for the most part, but even in the fading light of the setting sun it wasn’t hard to see the ground was still scorched in places, and the blackened trees were twisted and dry.

The people, though. The people had been so excited to see the ship. A few men had immediately set to work repairing where the Colonel had been unable to, Patch had run off laughing with a group of boys and girls her own age, and a gaggle of small children had immediately come to tug at the captain’s coat. She had giggled—Captain Kino had _giggled_ —and let them chatter on excitedly as they led her away.

Ami took a breath, and stepped off the ship for the first time in several weeks.

Immediately she stumbled—a flash of panic as she went lurching forward—and then found herself shakily on her hands and knees in the dirt, mucking up the knees of the brown pants and the front of the yellowed-white shirt Patch had lent her.

“Hello, you’re a new face,” a gentle voice came from somewhere above her. “Not an experienced sailor, are you?” Ami looked up into the face of a little old woman with a kind smile and grey hair braided over one shoulder. “It’s alright, take some time to get used to the land again. Everything will stop rocking if you give it a little time.” She held out a gnarled little hand. “Don’t stand up too quick now, dear. You can lean on me if you need to. I won’t complain. Where did Makoto pick you up?”

Ami shut her eyes for a moment as she tried to regain some sense of balance, brow furrowed. “I… what?”

“No, no, don’t tell me. Let’s see. You’ve got those smooth even features; did she find you in Markor?” The woman bent, tipping Ami’s chin up and turning her head to study her face. “What has she got you doing? You’re not a manual laborer, little bird.”

“What?” she echoed herself in confusion, fainter this time. “I’m—what? I’m not from Markor, and I’m not… I’m not really part of the crew.”

The woman patted her cheek compassionately. “Oh, dear, it won’t feel that way forever.”

Ami sat back on her heels finally and shook her head. She tried to stand up, but the old woman held onto her upper arms when she started to pitch to the side again. “No, I…” She hesitated, realizing three things at the same time.

She was off the ship, unattended.

She was off the ship, unattended, and could actually conceivably get away.

She was off the ship, unattended, and could actually conceivably get away, and she intended to get back on the ship with the rest of them.

“What is it? Are you feeling ill?” the little old woman asked.

She looked down at the scuff marks on her boots, and then back up at the woman. “No,” she said. “Thank you. I’m fine.”

“If you’re not from Markor, where did Makoto find you, then?”

“It—it doesn’t matter. Nowhere.” The lie fell out weakly, paper-flimsy and unconvincing even to her own ears. For a moment she worried the woman would be able to tell how thin it was, but the aged lips only curved into a smile.

“Ah,” nodded the old woman. “I see. You needn’t say a word more, dear; Makoto does have a penchant for collecting strays.”

Yes, she’d noticed, in the motley crew of sailors, no two quite the same, certainly not many with the ideal build for piracy.

“She’s a good girl,” the woman continued, patting her cheek again. “She’ll make sure you’re taken care of. You don’t look the sort to make it long at sea, but she’ll take care of you. She always does.”

_You’re all… soft and bright_.

“I mean, you see how she’s taken care of us after that attack, bringing us tax money and paying for the reconstruction work.” The woman gestured.

“Bringing you…?”

“Hey, Magda!” They both turned to see Baldy holding a stick of skewered meat and smiling, Pegleg trailing close behind with a similar stick in hand. “You’re not being a bother, are you?”

Ami shook her head quickly. “No, no, she isn’t, she’s been very helpful—”

Laughing, Baldy handed his stick to Pegleg and moved to hug the old woman. “Oh, she can be,” he grinned. “But Magda’s also known for sticking her nose in everyone’s business. Isn’t that right, Magda?”

Magda rolled her eyes and hugged the bald man back with a girlish laugh. “You hush, now. I was just telling this sweet young lady how Makoto is always good to runaways. I hope you’re being very welcoming?”

“Yes,” Pegleg nodded. “However, if you will excuse us—”

“—the captain was looking for you,” Baldy finished. He held out his hand, and Pegleg returned his stick of meat to him.

Ami blinked. “Oh—she—she was? Why? I mean—where?”

They pointed in unison, indicating a small building that was in a shade more disrepair than its neighbors. She nodded slowly.

Soft and bright.

She took a breath, counted to ten, and started for the door.

* * *

 

“That’s a bird!”

“No, no, it’s a butterfly!”

Laughing, Mako wiggled her fingers in front of the lantern. “Hey, hey, I didn’t think I’d gotten that much worse at this! It’s supposed to be a dragon!”

Little Noreen giggled and grabbed at her wrists. “Make the real dragon, make the real dragon!”

“The real dragon? You mean like this?” She twisted her fingers into another shape.

“No,” Tevin squealed, holding up his own little hands. “That’s the doggy! The dragon, the dragon! Like this!”

“Like this?”

The four of them howled with laughter in a chorus of “nooo!” “That’s the bunny!”

She grinned and folded her hands together, fingers tangling one over the other in a more complicated gesture. Four little pairs of eyes stared, enraptured, at the shadow of the dragon that appeared on the wall in front of them.

“Make it roar,” Delilah whispered, awestruck.

Mako inhaled, letting out the air in her lungs with a deep, low, guttural sound, drawing it out long enough to sound sufficiently like a roar. On the wall, the dragon’s wings shook themselves out as it threw its head back with the sound.

“You’re very good at that.”

The dragon dropped as Mako twisted around, surprised. Ami was standing in the doorway of the room, arms wrapped around herself, a small smile on her face. “Oh, uh—thank, thank you, it’s just something I… do… sometimes.”

“Who’re you?” Daniel piped up curiously. “Why’d you make the dragon go away?”

“No, no, she didn’t—”

“I’m Ami,” she said, coming over and sitting down next to Mako, “and I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to make the dragon go away.” She looked up at Mako. “Can it come back?”

She nodded, readjusting her hands in front of the lantern light, very aware of the fifth pair of eyes fixed on her instead of the shadow. “It can come back. I can make just about anything,” she told Ami. “You have any requests?”

“Kitten,” Noreen demanded before Ami could answer. “Kitten!”

Mako laughed and obliged, the dragon on the wall morphing into a kitten held by the scruff of its neck. “How are you doing that?” Ami shifted, curiously studying her hands and trying to mimic her.

“Oh—like this,” she adjusted carefully to show her. “I’m just really good with my hands.” Mako froze. “Uh. I mean, I just know what to do with my fingers.” She cringed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. “I mean—I practice a lot,” she mumbled.

That still didn’t sound any better.

Ami didn’t seem to understand why she was struggling, which was a small blessing at least. “That does make sense,” she offered. “Practicing something does generally make you better at it.”

“Kangaroo!” Daniel crowed, clapping. “Make a kangaroo!”

She laughed, obliging. “How’s that?”

“What sound’s a kangaroo make?” wondered Delilah. “Mako, Mako, what’s a kangaroo sound like?”

“I… don’t know, actually. What do you think a kangaroo sounds like?”

The four children huddled together, serious, making sounds at each other and arguing in whispers. “No, no, it’s—”

“No, that’s wrong, Tevin!”

“Magda would know,” Daniel insisted. It took nothing more for the four of them to scramble to their feet and scamper off to find the old woman with a chorus of “Bye-bye, Mako! Bye-bye, miss!”

Mako grinned over at Ami, voice lowering. “You want to learn how to make some of these?” When Ami nodded, shifting to face her completely, she held up her hands, palms outward. “Okay, so, we can start with something easy; the bird is just—”

“This?”

Mako blinked. “Uh—yeah, yeah. Sorry, that one’s probably too easy.” Ami laughed, her nose crinkling; something about the sound spread heat over Mako’s cheeks and ears, and she couldn’t keep the grin off her face. “Here, try, um, try this one, it’s a swan.” She held up her hands, turning a little. “See, you’ve got to use your whole—your whole forearm for the neck, and then the other hand is the feathers right here.” She held her other hand over her bicep, fingers spread to imitate feathers. “Try that one.”

Ami studied her for a moment before shifting to mimic her, her slender fingers making much more convincing feathers than Mako’s. She crooked her wrist, the head of the swan on the wall dipping with the motion.

“Yeah.” Mako cleared her throat and reached over, gently adjusting her elbow. “Here, this is—this is a little better; see?”

“Oh—yes, thank you…”

She didn’t need to be this close, probably. But Ami didn’t pull away, and the soft scent of her hair was loosening the tension in Mako’s shoulders, and for a breath, she could almost have forgotten the ship, the crew, all of it—

“I think… I think I’ve got it,” Ami whispered, not moving.

“I—oh. Oh! Serenity, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—I mean—I’m sorry.” Mako dropped her hands away from her arms, flushing. “Sorry.”

“No,” she said suddenly.

“…no?”

“No.” Ami looked up, expression unusually intense. “You don’t—you don’t have to apologize. Don’t.”

“Um,” Mako said, trying to find a coherent thought to latch onto.

“I’ve been—thinking.”

“Thinking?”

“Yes.” Her voice dropped, barely above a whisper. Mako didn’t realize she was leaning in until Ami’s eyes flicked up to meet hers, and her breath caught in her throat. “I,” she paused to wet her lips, “I have… something of a… theory.”

“A theory?” she mumbled in echo.

Ami lifted a hand, hesitating for a split second, fingers curled in nervously, then reached out to touch Mako’s shoulder. “May I try something?”

“Y—I—yeah,” she managed weakly.

The dust in the air hung suspended, still. Ears full of silence and her own uneven breathing, Mako never moved, just let the light touch on her shoulder burn through to her skin. They might have sat like that for the rise and fall of three queens, for the time it took to plan and execute a heist, for as long as it took to fall asleep—

—and then there was no time at all, just _soft_ and _warm_ and the taste of mint and those slender fingers gripping the collar of her coat and the curve of Ami’s spine under her hands and, finally, the ache in her chest loosened.

* * *

 

This, a voice in the back of Ami’s mind said wonderingly. This is what didn’t happen. This is what almost happened. Catalog. Steady hands on her back. Her fists clutching at the lapels of the captain’s (of _Mako’s_ ) coat, white knuckles bumping her collarbone. Chapped lips and a sound she’d never heard before, something like a sob and something like a sigh.

Cheeks and lungs burning, she broke abruptly, forehead bumping against Mako’s just a little too hard. “I’m s-sorry,” she gasped out. “I just thought—”

“Don’t.” Fingertips gentle at her jawline. Noses brushing lightly. Hazy green eyes, darker than they ought to be. “Please,” Mako whispered raggedly. Warm breath on her lips. “Please.” She pulled her in again, her movement less calculated than Ami’s had been.

But she knew what she was doing, and Ami had not.

Oh, came the voice as callused palms cupped her cheek, the back of her neck. Oh, it realized as fingers slid into her hair and teeth dragged across her lower lip. Oh, it whispered when her own hands found the threadbare green ribbon and pulled until loose brown curls came tumbling free.

_Oh_.

The floor came up to meet them without warning—hitting Mako’s back with a soft thud, then scraping through the thin fabric of her own shirt—they were tumbling, they were going to smack into the wall—where had Mako’s coat gone—? She’d lost her boots and couldn’t remember if that had happened before or after—before or after—Mako’s ridiculous tricorn hat was getting crushed, she was sure—

They broke apart again in a fit of hysterical giggling. They were both a mess; Mako’s loose hair hung thick and heavy around her face, getting into her mouth and Ami’s mouth alike, her shirt collar yanked to one side, Ami’s sleeve pooling around her wrist absurdly, face flushed red. They tried to disentangle for half a second before falling together again, the delirious giggling only escalating. Ami couldn’t tell if it was her own laughter or Mako’s, but then they were both laughing wildly, and then the laughter stopped just as quick as it had come, and the voice was her voice as her teeth collided with Mako’s and the sound was a whimper and it came from her throat.

I want this, it said. _I want_.


	7. she's never a day behind the time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

“What is this?”

Rei leaned over the map, running a hand tiredly over her brow. “What is what?”

“This,” Minako pointed.

“That? That’s not much anymore; used to be a little town, but it was levelled by a fire. It’s right on the border, see? Bandits crossed over, destroyed it.”

Blue eyes narrowed across the table. “When?”

“Seven, eight years ago—why? The town’s barely got a mayor. It’s mostly the elderly and children. It doesn’t even have a real port. Kino would be caught before she even got off her ship, that’s how little traffic they get.” Rei squeezed her eyes shut and massaged her temples. “The only time they even have visitors is during the…”

Mina waited. “During the what?”

“The local market,” she mumbled, realization dawning. “It’s a gathering of the closest towns, they do their trade all together, but the market only happens once a month.” Rei slammed her hand on the table with a scowl. “How could we have missed this? That’s her cover, all the visiting merchants!”

“When is the next one supposed to happen?” Minako reached for a glass, eyebrows raised.

“Three days.” Rei grabbed her helmet and yanked it on. “We’ll make it. I’ll tell the men to pack up camp.”

“The sun just set.”

“…I’ll tell the men to be ready in the morning.”

Smirking, Mina poured a second glass for the dark-haired commander. “We’d better not stay up too late then.”

“No, Minako.”

“It would be terrible to have to travel on not enough sleep.”

“It would.” She narrowed her eyes, pausing halfway out the tent. “Which is why you’re putting that away, right?”

Mina grinned. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

* * *

 

The stars were just coming out again when they came stumbling out of the old barn, hand in hand. Mako’s ponytail was haphazardly retied, there was dust smeared over the back of her coat, and she couldn’t keep the stupid giddy grin off her face. “Hey—that’s the Hunter,” she blurted, staring up at the purple-streaked sky.

Ami giggled and tugged at a stray lock of hair with a nod. She ducked her head, thumb brushing lightly across Mako’s knuckles. “You _were_ paying attention.”

“Of course I was, I said I was, didn’t I?” She rubbed at the back of her neck, trying and failing to stop smiling. It had just been… she couldn’t remember the last time she’d kissed someone like that. She wanted to talk about it. She wanted to keep feeling this light as long as possible.

She wanted to do it again.

“Are we going back to the ship?” She looked down, making another effort to bite back her smile at the way Ami’s head was tilted, soft hair falling messily across her forehead and against her cheek. She flushed when she realized how Mako was looking at her, and a smile crept up over her face as she tugged her hand free. “Don’t—don’t do that,” she whispered.

“Do what?”

She swiped a lock of hair back behind her ear, looking away, smile growing shyly. “That—that, where you—you look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Mako grinned. “I’m not doing anything.”

“You are, you do,” she insisted. “That’s the—you make a face.”

Mako clapped a hand over her mouth. “What? A face? No—no! I don’t—what face? Is it bad? Aw, damn, I’m sorry—”

“No, no,” she said, and then she was giggling again and covering her face, and, _Serenity_ , Mako just wanted to grab her hand again and pull her into a hug. “No, it’s just… I’ve never…” She wrapped her arms around herself and bit her lip, brow furrowing in contemplation. “It’s—it’s not a look that’s ever… that’s ever been meant for _me_.”

She hesitated before asking, slowly, “Do I… scare you?”

Ami was quiet. The longer silence stretched on, the lower Mako’s heart sank, until she finally responded, “Yes, I think.” She stopped, looking down at the space between her feet thoughtfully. “But not like you did at first.”

“Really?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I was afraid of Captain Kino of the stories for what I’d heard she did. Mako—” and Mako’s heart did the funny jumpy thing again “—I’m not afraid of Mako the same way,” she said.

There was a beat, and then Mako tucked her hands in her pockets. “What can I do to help you not be scared of me?”

“I don’t know that there is anything.” She looked up finally, uncertainty wavering across her face. “I don’t… I don’t like not knowing. I need to be sure I’m—I’m doing it right.”

“Doing what right?”

“Everything.” Lifting her shoulders, she went on, “Everything. I could…”

Mako waited, watching her worriedly. “You could what?”

“I’m sorry.” Ami gave an embarrassed little smile. “I was going to say I could go to the library, but that isn’t—I mean, I’m not—well, you said it yourself. I can’t exactly… go back. I don’t know if I, if I even want…” She struggled for a moment before falling silent again.

“Hey.” Her voice came out lower than she’d meant, gentle. “If it helps, I thought you were doing just fine.”

* * *

 

“Commander Hino!” Rei turned at the sound of her name, slowing her horse. The foot soldier dipped his head before continuing, “The scouts have come back. They said no one has noticed any suspicious activity regarding the market.”

She made a vaguely irritated sound and waved him away. “We don’t need them to notice anything, so long as we do. Kino is not getting away this time.”

“So eager to show me up,” Minako huffed.

“You mean eager to resolve this mess.”

“That’s what I said.”

Rei pursed her lips and sped up again. “Look, the sooner we apprehend the pirate, the sooner you can get back to singing in bars. You’re retired; you didn’t even have to come.”

“Oh, but then you’d be all by yourself, and that would just be no good.” She grinned. “What are they selling at this market, did you say?”

“I didn’t—”

“No, no, of course you didn’t.” Mina waved a hand and lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe we can sell your grumpy pants so you can stop frowning all the time.”

Rei huffed. “I’m not grumpy.”

“Grumpy pants,” came the sing-song response.

“I’m a _dedicated commander_ ,” she growled. “I’m not grumpy. Shut up. We’ve got a market to get to.”


	8. crashing over you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

The day before the market passed quicker than it probably should have. They didn’t tell anyone—or at least Ami didn’t. She was almost certain Mako hadn’t mentioned to anyone else what had happened. She wouldn’t. Surely she wouldn’t. No, of course not.

Pegleg and Baldy had spent the night at the local inn rather than on the ship, and before they had left Pegleg had given her a _look_. An extremely serious look. She wasn’t quite sure what it was supposed to mean, because it was about the same as his usual expression, just slightly more intense around the eyes, but Ami was desperately hoping it wasn’t an ‘I have more advice which may or may not be more awkward than helpful and also might just be a need to talk about Baldy’ sort of look, because she wasn’t sure she’d make it through another conversation as excruciating as that one had been.

She sat up too fast at a knock on the door and blanched, dizzying. “Wait—”

There was a pause, and then: “…is everything okay?”

Blinking away the disoriented feeling, she hopped up and went to pull on her shoes. “Yes, yes, sorry, I’m fine.” The door swung open as she was lacing up her boots—the scuffs and stains they’d acquired over the course of the last weeks had given them enough wear that they were beginning to look their age by now. These weren’t a treasurer’s boots; they were a sailor’s.

That probably shouldn’t have been the source of small pride it was.

“You ready?” Mako stood just outside the door, hands in the pockets of her long coat and a little crooked smile on her face. She might have looked sheepish if she could have kept the excitement out of her eyes. “I just thought maybe you’d want to see what we do with the money…”

“I do, I do,” she nodded, straightening. “I’m coming.”

The captain—Mako—the captain—the lines were growing more distinct in her mind, as hard as it was to reconcile the faint scent of roses amid sea spray with _Captain Kino, pirate_ ; to reconcile her strong, warm hands with _wanted for piracy and assorted criminal acts_. None of the stories could be true, she thought, not even the ones Patch had laughingly nodded along to. Or if they were, they couldn’t be about the woman nervously offering her hand and telling as they walked, for the third time, the story of how they’d stumbled across the little town, how they’d put out the fires and desperately tried to find a way to grow something in the barren ground again, how they’d been funneling money from the rich into this place…

Her fingers interlaced with Mako’s, aware of every callus and scrape and cut on her larger hand, Ami pushed away the idea of Captain Kino and held, instead, to Mako. There were no stories about Mako, nothing to shape her thoughts about her except her hands, and her rough low voice, and her sunlit laugh, and that _look_ on her face, and an hour of inexperienced kissing and whispers in a disused barn in a town without a name.

“…so here,” Mako said, her voice drawing Ami out of her thoughts. She grinned and held out a small sack. “I mean, you’ve counted it enough times, figures it’s about time you got to spend some of it, right?”

She hesitated before reaching to take it with a small smile. “Well… since it’s for a good cause, I suppose?”

“Where do you want to start?”

“Spoons said they might have a star map?” Ami suggested hopefully. “I thought it would be nice to have one, for reference—”

“For reference?”

“Yes, for reference.” She tilted her head. “I… I mentioned—I left you a note—?”

“Oh.” Mako looked down, embarrassed. “Uh… yeah, yeah. The note. It was, er, it was really pretty.” She cleared her throat. “Um, remind me what it—what it said?”

Realization sunk in slowly. “…you can’t read,” she said slowly.

“That’s not true,” she insisted, “I can—I know my name when I see it. Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

Mako mumbled something that was lost in the noise of the market. Before Ami could ask what it was, she was pulling her through the crowd and raising her voice to say, “There’s a guy with a bunch of maps who usually sets up over here; he might have your star map!”

And then it was a dizzying blur of sound and people and haggling and the smell of metal coins and new wood and meat and cloves and faded cinnamon, and her head whipped around at the sight of a woodworker before they’d made it very far at all. “Oh,” she whispered, eyes wide.

The woodworker grinned and pulled off her gloves, setting them aside. “What did you see?” she asked as she set down the carving she’d been working on.

“Ami?” Mako doubled back and came to stand next to her. “What? What is it?”

“Is this aspen and wenge?” she asked the woodworker.

“Is what what?”

The woodworker nodded and leaned over to tap the chessboard lightly. “Took me a bit; wenge don’t like to cooperate much, and it’s not real common, but there it is. Made it for a lady down in Poisiton. Like a proper lady, I mean. Lovely painter, lovely violinist, but you can’t ever tell what’s going on in there. That’s how the nobility _is_ , though, you know.” Lifting her eyebrows, she reached under the table and pulled out a different board. “I haven’t got any more wenge, but I did this one first as a practice run if you wanna make an offer…”

She took it gingerly, studying the smooth finish of the wood. “What’s that?” Mako whispered.

“It’s—it’s a chessboard, there are some in the library. I play—I _used_ to play with the clock tower sentinel sometimes,” she said as she ran a fingertip lightly across the wood. Looking up, she asked, “Palisander?”

“You got it.” The woodworker nodded again and leaned across the table, propped on her elbows. “Top flips up like that, you’ve got all your pieces in there. Nice, roomy, handy for other trinkets ‘f that’s what you want.”

Mako tilted her head. “Would you show me how to play?”

“You want to—yes, yes of course!” She lit up, pulling open the little sack and looking up. “How much are you…?”

“Twenty gold bits is what I’m asking.”

Before Ami could get out the money, a handful of coins was rolling across the table. “Whoops—sorry, I didn’t mean to do that—” Mako swiped at the coins she’d dumped out and grinned. “Here, that’ll work, right?”

The woodworker laughed and nodded, counting the coins into her box. “That’ll do just fine, thanks. Enjoy.”

* * *

 

When they stumbled out later, there was a rolled up map under Mako’s arm and a smooth wooden chess board hugged to Ami’s chest, and they were laughing.

“I can’t believe you could tell what kinds of wood that thing is made of—”

“You gave her more than she was asking for!”

“Hey, look, you said you were going to show me what it’s for, so that’s kind of like paying for lessons or something right—”

“Captain!” They stopped as Baldy ran over, waving them down, his usually calm demeanor frazzled and tense. “Captain, have you seen Leggy? He said he was going to get food and he’d be right back, but that was hours ago, and I’m getting worried…”

Mako sobered immediately, smile dropping. “Pegleg disappeared?”

“Yeah, I—I know it’s probably nothing,” he started. “But I just, I’m worried about him. He always tells me where he’s going and he’s always on time.”

“Where did he say he was getting the food from?” She stopped little Noreen and handed her bag of gold over. “Hey, go get yourself something nice, okay?” The child broke into a delighted squeal and ran off, disappearing into the crowd. “Baldy,” Mako said urgently as she straightened. “Did he say?”

He shook his head, folding his arms nervously. “No, and he couldn’t have gotten lost, I waited right there the whole time.”

“Would he have gone back to the ship?” Ami asked, brow knit.

Mako considered this. “Maybe.” She turned to look at Baldy again seriously. “Wait back where you were in case he just got sidetracked; he’ll want to find you and if you aren’t there he might get worried. We’ll go check the ship.” Beside her, Ami nodded.

Relief loosening the worried tension in his shoulders, Baldy swallowed. “Thanks. I mean, I know it’s probably nothing, I just… if something happened to him I don’t know what I’d do.”

“It’s okay,” Mako told him, patting his shoulder, maybe a little harder than she meant judging by his wince. “We’ll find him. You know he’s fine, Pegleg can take care of himself. Don’t worry.”

“But… why would he be on the ship? He would have had enough for a meal still surely,” Ami said in a low voice as they started hurriedly in the direction of the dock.

Mako hooked an arm around her to steer her away from a cart that toppled over a little too close for comfort. “Yeah, but they have this blanket they eat on,” she sighed. The crowd of people were thinning the closer they drew to the dock. “I didn’t see Pegleg grab it when they left the ship yesterday. He’s probably found it and it’s dirty or something, which, if that’s the case we’ll have to calm him down and convince him it’s fine—”

“ _Ami!_ ”

Before Mako registered where the high-pitched shriek had come from, something had hurtled through the air with alarming accuracy, her arm suddenly hurt like it had been yanked, and Ami was flat on her back in the dirt. “Uh,” Mako said stupidly, staring at the helmeted figure currently pulling a bewildered Ami into a sitting position to shake her by the shoulders.

“—and then they said there was a big robbery or something and you were gone and there were pirates and it was just terrible and then everyone left so I had to—my helmet’s stuuuuuuuck! Amiiiiiiiiiii!” The babbling devolved into a wail, muffled by the metal helmet.

On the ground, Ami had gone white. She tugged at the wailing person’s helmet hesitantly, and when it popped off and rolled a short distance away, two long blonde pigtails came tumbling down and a round face beamed through tears. “Princess?” Ami squeaked.

“ _Princess?_ ” Mako echoed.

“What—why are you dressed in a military uniform? What are you doing here?”

“I would like to know the same thing,” came a sour voice. Mako looked up to see, too late, a collection of soldiers closing a circle around them. A woman with long dark hair stepped forward, mouth pressed into a thin, disapproving line. “Princess. You shouldn’t be here.”

The princess scrambled off of Ami—who didn’t move from where she was sprawled on the ground, seemingly in shock—and pouted. “Rei, but Rei, I had to come, I just had to! You said you were going to find Ami and Mina wanted to go with you and then nobody was going to be there at all, Rei, nobody at _all!_ ”

The dark-haired woman’s gaze slid from the princess to Mako. “Captain Kino, I presume.”

She found her tongue at the look of triumph rising on that face. “At your service,” she answered, tipping her hat and taking a step closer to Ami. “And you would be…”

“Commander Hino.” And suddenly Ami was on her feet and darting away, talking faster than Mako had heard since that first time after getting her aboard the ship. “Commander Hino,” she repeated, grabbing at the woman’s arm. “You—you came, you found us—me—I didn’t know if, I’d thought maybe—but you’re the rescue team, a-and you came—!”

“The intent was to arrest you, treasurer,” Commander Hino said as she moved her back behind one of the soldiers, “but we’ll figure out if that’s still the case after we know whether or not this was a kidnapping or treason. Princess, please get away from the criminal.” The princess ran over, clinging immediately to Ami and saying something tearfully. “Treasurer. Are you an associate of this pirate?”

For half a second, she thought she could see Ami hesitate. She glanced over, not long enough to really hold eye contact, just long enough to inhale. Then she lifted her arms with a tentative awkwardness to return the princess’s embrace, and her voice came quiet and steady. “Commander, why would I ever be an associate of criminals?”

The air left Mako’s lungs.

* * *

 

“Why would I ever be an associate of criminals?” Rei held the cool blue stare of the treasurer over Usagi’s shoulder.

Neither blinked, until at last Usagi sniffed out, “I _told_ you, Rei, she wouldn’t ever,” and Ami ducked her head, face hidden in the shoulder of the ill-fitting uniform the princess wore.

“Is that so,” she murmured, turning away finally to see the indomitable Captain Kino looking like she’d been kicked in the gut, both hands clenched into fists. “Is that so,” Rei repeated a little louder, “captain?”

“Where is Pegleg?” the captain growled instead. “What did you do to him?”

“He’s fine. We’ve been gathering up your crew all day.” She lifted her chin with a smirk. “You know, you were lucky to make it here, with the ship in that condition.”

“We have a good carpenter. Did you hurt any of them?” Kino took a step forward, demanding again, “Did you hurt any of my people?”

Rei gestured. The circle of foot soldiers closed in. “Captain Makoto Kino, you are under arrest for willfully committing acts of piracy, treason, theft, kidnapping, looting, arson, sailing under false colors, and general depravity. Do you deny any of these charges?”

She narrowed her eyes as they cuffed her hands behind her back. “What the hell do you mean, ‘general depravity’? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you, and your crew, will be transported back to the castle, where you will be placed in the dungeons until found guilty by a court of law. Then you will likely be executed.” Nodding to the carts they had left partially out of sight, she said to her soldiers, “Keep her separate from the rest of them. One last sweep and then we’ll start back.” She turned as they wrestled the pirate back towards the carts. Usagi had finally let go of the treasurer, who was now sitting and staring vacantly at her hands in her lap while the princess tried to talk to her. “Princess.”

“ _Usagi_ ,” insisted Usagi.

“…Usagi,” Rei said, “since you aren’t technically supposed to be here, you’re riding up front with me and Minako. Leave the treasurer alone; she’ll stay near the carts.”

“But you can’t leave her with them, Rei, they hurt her!” the princess protested. She patted the treasurer’s shoulder, asking, “Did they hurt you? It’s okay, you can tell me, we’re friends!”

It was a moment before she responded, shaking her head slowly. “No,” she said softly, “no, they… they didn’t. They didn’t hurt me.”

Rei made a vaguely unconvinced sound and pointed. “Treasurer, you can talk to them. They’ll find you somewhere to sit out of the way on the journey back. Princess—Usagi, walk her over.”

Usagi hopped up immediately, offering her hands to help up the smaller woman. “Come on,” she smiled. “I’ll stay with you until we go, okay?” The treasurer nodded and hugged the wooden box in her arms to herself. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to see them again.”

It may have been Rei’s imagination, but the look that flashed over her face was not quite the expression of relief it should have been.


	9. roll the old chariot along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

The cart was small and a little stuffy, but Mako didn’t really think she was in a position to be complaining about the state of things.

This was a lie; she was in exactly the right position to be complaining about the state of things. She slid down the wall, sitting on the uneven wooden floor of the little cart with a heavy thud and exhaling shakily.

_Why would I ever_ —

Ami wasn’t a very good liar. She had tried, Mako remembered, that first day; but her voice had kept trembling, and she’d never been able to hold eye contact for longer than a few seconds at a time. But that had been pretty convincing, just then, out there.

Something creaked from the front of the cart, outside. Voices— “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay back here?”

“I’ll be fine, really. Thank you, pr—thank you, Usagi.”

“And you meant it?” The princess sounded suspicious. “You’re okay? You didn’t get hurt?”

Mako held her breath and shut her eyes. “No. And I… you have to promise you won’t tell Rei.” Her shoulders relaxed a little.

“Don’t tell Rei? Why? Ooo what’s the secret? What’s the secret?” She grabbed at the wall when the cart shook suddenly, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep from swearing aloud.

“They aren’t—they aren’t like in the stories,” she heard Ami say carefully. “They’re not bad people.”

_Serenity_.

For a moment it was quiet. Mako couldn’t be sure if that thumping was the blood in her ears or something actually hitting the walls of the cart, but then the princess spoke in a more serious tone than she had yet. “Ami, did you lie? Are you friends with the pirates?”

“They’re not bad people,” she repeated herself, sounding somewhere between scared and pleading. “I—I care about them, Usagi—”

“I trust you. But… but I trust Rei, too.” The princess hesitated. “…I won’t tell. You aren’t going to tell me what happened, are you?” Without waiting for a response, she laughed. “I didn’t really think so. It’s okay. Maybe sometime later!”

Mako closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the wall of the cart, hat sliding halfway down her nose as the princess said a cheerful goodbye and ran off.

The door swung open abruptly. She was halfway to her feet when she came face-to-face with Baldy, who appeared just as startled as she was. “Oh,” he said. “Sorry, captain. I was looking for Leggy. Do you know which one he’s in?”

“Uh. No, I don’t—wait, Baldy!” She grabbed his arm urgently. “Don’t—don’t try anything stupid, alright? I don’t know who all they’ve got, but just—just find who you can and run. Don’t get caught, don’t put yourself in more danger than you need to, alright? Just take whoever’s in the next one and run.”

He shook his head. “I have to find Pegleg,” he said seriously. “He’s going to be waiting for me; I can’t let him down. Don’t worry, captain. We’ll get everyone out.” Baldy grinned suddenly. “You can count on us.” Flashing a thumbs up, he moved back and shut the door again quietly. The click of the lock never came.

“Good luck,” she mumbled.

* * *

 

The trip back to the palace was much shorter than the trip from it. Well, Ami amended mentally, that wasn’t true; it just felt that way because of the general uneventfulness. But there it was, it felt shorter, and if she hadn’t spent the waking hours thinking, agonizing over what she could possibly do, she was almost convinced it would have passed before she had realized it.

It didn’t matter now, of course, with the glittering spires and domes of the castle looming overhead, flicking sunlight off its peaks and making it impossible to look directly at it. “The queen will grant us audience later this evening,” Rei said after she had gathered Ami, Usagi, and Minako together. “Princess, you should probably get cleaned up and… stop wearing that uniform. Honestly, who did you steal it from?”

“It was a spare!”

With an irritated sigh, Rei turned to Minako. “You and I will escort Kino personally. Treasurer, you’ll have time to make yourself presentable before the hearing. You’ll need to be present to testify. There will, of course, be other witnesses, so think carefully about the truth you’ll be telling her majesty.”

She nodded, and wasn't really surprised when a guard stuck close to walk her back to her room. The soft light from the window, the neatly made bed, the shelves—it was familiar and right and real, and yet. And yet.

And yet.

Her court official clothes were back on the ship, or somewhere in the ocean if Rei had been serious about sinking the _Rose and Thorn_. Ami thought it was likely she had been. Either way, she’d have to make do with something less than exactly appropriate. Which was fitting, she supposed, as quite a lot of what had happened recently was less than exactly appropriate. The surprising part was that she couldn’t quite say she minded.

She had just finished folding up Patch’s borrowed clothing and was wishing there was time to wash it properly when there was a tap at the window. Startled, she spun, mouth opening with the beginning of a question at the sight of Baldy waving frantically from the ledge. He shook his head and tapped the glass again; she ran over to yank the window open.

“How did you get up here? What are you doing?” Ami asked.

Baldy hopped down inside and shifted his weight from one foot to the other a couple times. “I climb ship masts for a living; castle wall’s not too hard,” he shrugged, looking at the floor. “I saw where they’ve got them in the dungeon. You don’t have to help with the dangerous bits so you don’t get in trouble, I just thought maybe you’d know where I could get a spare guard uniform or something so I can get everybody out.”

She gestured vaguely to the door, trying to keep her voice low. “Of course I’m helping, I’ve got to make sure they don’t execute anyone even though they’re doing a rushed hearing—are you just going to break into the dungeons in a uniform and, what, try walking everyone out and hope nobody questions you because you’re dressed like a guard? By yourself? With almost twenty prisoners?”

He thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty much my plan. Did you think of a better one?” He sounded genuinely hopeful.

“I can. The uniform… isn’t a bad idea, though.”

Someone pounded on the door. “Treasurer?” called the gruff voice of the guard still outside. “Are you talking to someone in there?”

She looked from the door to Baldy. “And… there _is_ one right there.”

* * *

 

Pulling the princess aside, Rei fixed her with a stern look. “Does Queen Serenity know where you’ve been?”

“Of course she does,” Usagi said reproachfully. “I left her a letter!”

Rei felt a twitch beginning in her eye. “Usagi. I need to know the first order of business at this hearing isn’t going to be _me_ being arrested for letting you put yourself in danger.”

“I said I was going because I wanted to help and I helped!” She pouted. “Don’t you think I helped?”

There wasn’t an answer that was both true and what the princess wanted to hear, so Rei chose not to answer and looked away. “Maybe it’s best if you don’t attend the hearing, princess.”

“But I want to come and hear! I want to see all of Ami’s pirates!”

“No. You shouldn’t come to the hearing. Minako and I will handle it, okay?” Before Usagi could argue, she steered her to the door that led back out into the hallway. “It’s okay, go. We’ll take care of it.”

At that moment the door opened to the treasurer and the guard Rei had sent to keep an eye on her. She blinked in surprise. “Oh. Am I—have we already begun?”

“Ami!” Usagi lunged forward and threw her arms around her neck. “Rei doesn’t want me to come be there at the hearing but I wanna be there! I’m your _moral support!_ ”

Tentatively returning the hug, the treasurer glanced over questioningly. Rei shook her head. “Queen Serenity may not be fully aware of what her daughter has been doing these past weeks, and I would rather let that be a conversation they have in private. Princess, please release the treasurer so we can proceed to the hearing.” Usagi reluctantly did as told, eventually, trudging out with her head low. “She’ll get over it,” Rei muttered, motioning for the other two to follow her into the inner chamber, where the throne room lay and where Minako was waiting with Captain Kino.

The heavy silver doors swung open slowly to let them enter, and Rei had to blink a few times before finally lowering her eyes to walk in. Three years as commander, and she still couldn’t bring herself to look at the queen for very long.

There was just something about Queen Serenity that was… _blinding_. She was brilliant; to look at her too long hurt. Some of the servants whispered, and the rumor had spread among the staff that the queen glowed. The rumor was not wrong. Rei had still never managed to look up past the tranquil, close-mouthed smile of her pale lips. She’d never admit it, but she was a little afraid of what she might see if she ever did meet the queen’s eyes. As she came to a stop next to Mina, making sure both the treasurer and the guard were still behind her, she glanced at Captain Kino.

She was on her knees, eyes wide and mouth open, staring at the radiance of Queen Serenity. Something wet hit the floor with a quiet _plip_ , and Rei realized that the pirate was crying.

* * *

 

“Captain Makoto Kino,” said the spectral woman in front of her in a voice like silver. “You are here to be tried for piracy, among other crimes. Do you argue any of the charges levied against you?”

Mako couldn’t remember how to speak. Everything was made of light. The queen wasn’t a person; she was the sun and moon together poured into a person’s shape and made physical, she was a star with a smile and crystalline eyes that saw the turn of the world and told it the speed to spin.

“Do you argue any of the charges levied against you?” the queen repeated in that same gentle voice, clear and elegant.

There was nothing to argue. How could she argue with solid light? She tried to say something, anything; her mouth was already open, but where was the sound, where was the sound—

“If I may, Your Highness?” a soft voice slid through the light. _Ami_. Mako remembered how to work her jaw and snapped her mouth shut hard enough to hurt her teeth. “It is possible, as the list of charges is long, it may need to be repeated…?”

Queen Serenity’s smile changed imperceptibly, something in her eyes Mako would never quite be able to describe. “Commander Hino, if you would?”

The sound of the commander’s low tones reciting the list of crimes they’d assigned to her peeled away enough of the spell that by the time she reached “general depravity” Mako had managed to squeeze her eyes shut and bow her head, and that helped restore most of her ability to think.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve never burned anything down, and ‘general depravity’ is just plain rude, honestly.” And technically the kidnapping was an accident, but she wasn’t going to say that and risk incriminating Ami. “Uh, what counts as treason?”

“Piracy itself is an act of treason,” the commander muttered at her.

Mako swallowed. “Oh. Right.”

“Treasurer Mizuno.” She heard the scuff of boots shifting on the tile behind her in response to the queen’s address. “You are here both as a victim and as a witness. This was made clear to you, was it not?” Mako didn’t hear her reply, but she must have, because Queen Serenity continued, “I am uninterested in hearing your testimony.”

The sharp intake of breath was definitely the commander’s.

“Instead, I am interested in your judgment of character. What happened specifically on Captain Kino’s ship does not matter to me.” The queen paused. “Does Captain Kino deserve to die?”

The split second of silence was painful. It wasn’t nearly as long as it felt, but Mako’s breath caught in her throat all the same until the quiet was broken by a ragged breath.

“No,” came the whisper. Then, louder, “No. _No_.”

If they hadn’t been in the presence of the queen, Mako thought the commander might have exploded right there. “Does any of her crew?”

“No.”

Queen Serenity’s smile was audible. “Thank you. Commander Hino, what is your input?”

“I would never contradict the wishes of Your Highness, but I feel it is important to recall that Treasurer Mizuno has been through a traumatic ordeal and may not be thinking clearly,” the commander said, voice even. “I also wish to remind Your Highness that crime cannot be tolerated in order for citizens to live in peace.”

“Commander, crime is not tolerated.” The queen’s dress rustled quietly; Mako imagined she had spread her arms wide. “But what is the worth of peace if its price is the fear of my people? We will not sanction the death of any who have not deemed that life is for the taking.”

There was a hand at her shoulder; she thought it was the blonde’s, but she couldn’t risk opening her eyes yet. “Get up, captain,” the blonde said quietly. “We’re done.”


	10. put 'em in the brig (until they're sober)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!

By the time they got back to her room, Ami had mostly gotten the tremor in her hands under control. Baldy took off the helmet as she closed the door, and she folded her arms to try to hide what she couldn’t steady. “You… you’re fine,” she said, surprised that he seemed entirely unaffected by the visit to the queen.

He shrugged. “Well, yeah, now that I know Leggy’s not in danger of getting killed. Thanks for that, I really mean it.”

“I had an argument prepared and everything. It was a good one too,” she mumbled absently. “I—but you’re not…?”

Baldy blinked, then seemed to realize what she meant. “Ohh. No? She was… I dunno. I mean, it was really pretty and all, but it was like looking at the sun, yeah? You just gotta squint and get used to it. I thought the light was really neat, and she maybe doesn’t seem totally human? But I dunno. She was nice. I liked her. Is she always like that?”

“…you…” She shook her head. “I—I’ve only seen her once before, and it was… she was that intense, yes. Not her personality, her presence—you were there, you saw.”

“I saw what it did to everyone, yeah.” He rubbed the top of his head, looking at her thoughtfully. “Are we still sticking with the same plan? Can we do that? I don’t think the commander’s so sure you’re totally on her side anymore.”

“No… we can stick to the same plan.” Ami sat on the edge of the bed, hands on her knees. “She won’t fight the queen on this.”

Skeptical, Baldy leaned back against the wall and folded his arms. “You’re sure?”

“You saw what being in that room did to everyone,” she said dryly. “Except, apparently, you.”

He lifted his shoulders, more apologetic this time. “Sorry. But, uh,” he started, sounding a little awkward, “I think, um. I think the thing I was going to do, I think you should do it.”

“Wait—what? No, I can’t do that, I won’t be able to get the right leverage,” she protested.

“Nah, I’ll help, but you should definitely do it.”

“Why?”

“For the captain,” he said simply. When she couldn’t find a way to tell him that that wasn’t really a reason to potentially jeopardize their attempt to jailbreak an entire crew of pirates from the royal dungeon, he grinned. “So. How long do we have to wait before we get started?”

* * *

 

“Got any aces?”

Mako rolled her eyes, face smushed between the bars of her cell. “He hasn’t drawn anything since the last time you asked,” she mumbled. The soldiers at the table a few feet away pointedly did not respond.

“Nope.” The taller one sighed and drew a card.

“Told you.” She scooted backwards and dropped onto her back with a huff. From a couple cells over, she could hear Brutus singing to himself, Patch muttering something rhythmically, Pegleg counting the cracks in the ceiling. He never made it past seventy before he would stop abruptly and start over, slower, until he got fed up trying to count slowly. They had been here a week, and while life in prison was definitely a hell of a lot better than being publicly executed, there was not a whole lot to do in a cell six tiles by six tiles.

Mostly she had been trying to needle the guards. They were very unflappable, so it was more frustrating than entertaining.

“…sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy—captain!” Pegleg said suddenly, raising his voice a little.

She made no move to get off the floor. “What.”

“Do not fear. Do you recall the time my master rescued a kitten from the ocean?”

“That… didn’t happen, Pegleg. And please, just use his name.”

“I could never!” He sounded offended.

The sound of cards flipping as the shorter one drew from the deck. “Got any aces?”

Mako was almost ready to kill a man.

“Eh, uh, we have dinner for the prisoners?” She did sit up at that—because it sounded very much like Baldy, but the person who’d spoken was helmeted and dressed the same way as the guards and _oh Serenity standing next to Ami_.

The two at the table looked up. “Just shove it under the bars,” one said, gesturing to the wall of cells. The guard that was hopefully Baldy nodded and wheeled the cart of plates to the end of the row, handing a plate to Ami. She took it carefully and started down the row, eyes fixed on the plate and expression pure concentration. Mako gripped the bars nervously as she craned her neck.

“Here,” Ami whispered, stopping in front of Patch’s cell and sliding the plate gingerly under to the teenager, who lit up and scrambled to eat. She straightened again with a smile and took another plate from the cart, she or the guard leaving a plate and a whisper at each cell, until there was one left. She took it, this time coming all the way to a halt in front of Mako.

For a moment neither of them said a word. Mako swallowed. She looked like she had in the treasury all that time ago, clean and neat and breakable, soft and bright. But this was the same woman who had carried barrels of gunpowder half as big as her to the cannons, who had sat beside her holding a flickering match and told her about the stars, who had stayed with her in a room lit by a lantern and tried to tie her hair back again while apologizing over and over for pulling it out of the ribbon.

Ami knelt, eye-level with her, and smiled. “Captain,” she said softly. The plate slid under the bars. “It’s a little messy; you’ll need a napkin.” She held out a piece of cloth that Mako was pretty sure was too nice to be a napkin.

She reached out to take it and had just closed her fingers around the corner when Ami put a cool hand over hers, holding her gaze silently for a long moment. Her fingertips pressed lightly into Mako’s wrist.

“Someone will be by to take it when you’re done,” she said, then stood abruptly and was gone again, followed by the casually whistling guard with the empty cart.

“Ha!” The taller guard slammed a pair of cards down on the table. “Pair of aces!”

Mako opened the cloth carefully and bit back the urge to laugh when a piece of paper fell out, covered in careful drawings instead of words. She scanned over the little paper—that was definitely Baldy in the uniform, and they were going to get them out… somehow. There was a scribbled out part between the little picture of Ami and Baldy bringing the food in and the picture of a (presumably stolen) ship sailing away.

She shook out the napkin just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything, and couldn’t stop the grin this time when a fresh box of matches fell out.

There was a smile drawn on the back.

* * *

 

“Treasurer!” Rei strode past the desk, ignoring the frantic shushing of the librarian there. “Treasurer!”

The treasurer in question peered around a tall stack of books, a pair of reading glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. “Commander?” Rei’s eyes dropped to the open book in front of her.

… _pouring light equally_

_across the salt sea_

She closed the book hurriedly, pink tinging her cheeks. “Is something wrong?”

“Where is the guard assigned to you?” Folding her arms, she continued, “He hasn’t been reporting to me. Has he been staying with you?”

She did not miss the brief flash of panic that crossed the treasurer’s face. “Oh, um, yes—yes, he’s been present.” No eye contact. Rei pressed on.

“And effective?”

“Yes…?”

“And where is he now?” She looked around, well-aware that there was no one around. “I don’t see him.”

The treasurer stared intently at the cover of the book in her hands. “He… he went to put away some volumes I was done with. When he returns, I can ask him to go find you if you’d like?”

Rei didn’t respond for a moment. _Something_ was going on here; she was not going to miss what it was. “That’s fine, I can wait. Mind if I sit down?” She waited for the hesitant nod before pulling the other chair out and sitting.

Silence stretched out uncomfortably between them. Rei sat straight and tall in her chair, observing the nervous twitch of the treasurer’s fingers on the spine of the book. _Poetry and Poetic Fragments_ , read the silver lettering, _by the Greek Poetess and Lyrist of the Isle_. She wondered what kind of poetic fragments those were to make the treasurer blush, then decided she’d rather not find out, as Mina would inevitably somehow know if she did and demand an extended explanation.

It was a solid half hour of heavy, suffocating silence before the guard returned. “Hey, I couldn’t find the… oh,” he said, muffled by his helmet. “Hey, Commander.”

Narrowing her eyes, she stood, relieved at the welcome interruption. “Is that how you address all your superiors? Is that how you would address the princess? Is that how you would address the _queen_?”

He seemed at a loss. “Uh. No. Ma’am? No ma’am? I’m sorry.”

“Don’t call me ‘ma’am,’” she scowled. “You’ve been falling behind on your reports. Over here, please?” He followed her obediently over a few feet away. She crossed her arms.

“Oh,” he said. “Report. Right. Um, things are—things are good. The things. All good.”

Eyebrows lifting, Rei repeated, “Things are good. How descriptive. Exactly what I, your commander, want to know, full of all the relevant information.” He started to thank her, but, irritated, she pressed her fingertips to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. “No, no, I’m replacing you. You’re back on tower duty.”

“You’re… replacing me?” He sounded confused and a little sad. “When?”

“Effective immediately.”

* * *

 

Baldy sounded so hurt. “And then she said she’s replacing me. I think I got fired.” His shoulders slumped. “Did I get fired?”

Tilting her head, Ami hesitated before saying carefully, “You… do remember you weren’t really working here, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but it was kinda cool to have a real job for a little while.” He pulled off the helmet and nodded to the book in her hands. “Are you keeping that?”

“Just for a little while. I can’t keep it forever.” She hugged it to her chest. “That’s not how libraries work.”

“It isn’t?”

“No, not really.” She checked the time again, feet tapping on the floor nervously. “Should we start now or—”

He nodded. “This is when you said they’d be changing the guards, right?”

“Yes…” Ami stood and lifted the lid of her chessboard, sliding the book inside. “Yes.”

“And you’re doing the thing?”

“I can’t do the thing.”

“You’re doing the thing.”


	11. come sail away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please enjoy the final installment!

Mako was pacing the length of her cell, the fresh matchbox with Ami’s little smiley face clutched in one hand and the drawn note in the other, when it happened.

The clang first made her spin around. The one guard currently present was blinking in confusion, his helmet rolling away on the stone floor. “Oops,” said Baldy, muffled by his own helmet. “Sorry. You should, uh, you should pick that up.”

Shooting a glare at him, the guard bent over to retrieve his helmet.

_BANG_.

…and then he was sprawled on the floor and Ami was wincing from behind him, chessboard gripped tight in both hands. “Oh dear,” she mumbled, peering down at the unconscious guard.

“Oops,” Baldy agreed as he bent down to get the keys off the man’s belt. He bounded over, unlocking Pegleg’s cell first.

“I… should not have done that.”

“You did the thing,” Baldy nodded.

Mako laughed and leaned against the bars. “Well, I’m pretty glad you did.” She did a double-take when she realized none of the other cell doors were being opened. “Baldy!”

Pegleg was clinging to the bald man. “Uh,” he said. “One second, captain—” He tossed the keys to Ami before hugging Pegleg back just as tightly.

She managed an awkward, one-handed catch, seeming unable to let go of the chessboard yet, and hurried over to the other cells. Mako bounced on the balls of her feet anxiously, trying to keep an eye on the guard on the floor. One by one the others filtered out into the more open space, until finally Ami was in front of her and whispering for her to move so she didn’t catch her hair in the lock.

And then the bars were gone. With a giddy laugh, she grabbed her by the waist and swung her around. “You did it, you guys did it—!” Mako stopped abruptly, hugging her. “Holy Serenity. You broke me—us—you broke us out of _jail_!”

“Well not—not completely yet,” Ami protested, muffled by her shoulder. “We still have to get you out of here and to the docks.”

She turned her head to plant a kiss on her cheek. “Okay, let’s go then!” The hand on her shoulder stopped her abruptly, and the thin uncertain line of Ami’s mouth faded Mako’s smile. “What? What is it?”

“Mako,” she said, and she almost didn’t need to say any more than that.

Heart sinking, Mako shook her head. “No. No, don’t—”

“I’m not coming.” Ami stepped back. Soft and bright and neat and this was where she belonged, with her library and her chess and her desk and her records of all the gold the royal family owned, and Mako knew that, she did.

But she had still… hoped.

“Baldy knows where to go,” she continued; “he’ll take you there. You’ll need a distraction to get out. That’s what I can do.”

“Ami—”

“I’ll buy you some time. Go. Go, go, you need to go.” Ami thrust the chessboard at her. “And—and take this, take it, please?”

“Captain?” Baldy cleared his throat, one arm hooked around Pegleg’s waist.

She set her jaw, not taking the little wooden box. “Get everybody else out.”

“No,” Ami hissed, “no, _go_!”

“I’m not throwing you under the coach! You came back here; this is what you wanted! You can’t sacrifice all this, I won’t let you! I’ll stay, I’ll tell them it was me—”

“You don’t get to decide what I do.” Her voice was low and hoarse. “Please, Mako, go with them, get out, find a new hat and a new ship and don’t get caught.”

She didn’t move. “They’ll know it was you. Ami, they’ll _hurt_ you. I won’t—I can’t let anyone hurt _any_ of my people.”

“Don’t say that, I’m not—”

Mako leaned in and kissed her, a little harder than she meant to, hands cupping her face. “You are,” she whispered when she pulled away. “You _are_.”

With a shaky breath and one hand gripping Mako’s wrist, she tried to say something, but couldn’t force a sound out. Mako pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Ami,” she said, voice soft. “Please, I’m not… I’m not going to… Either I’ll stay, I’ll get back in there and tell them everybody else got out on their own so they can’t prove it was you, or—or—”

“Or what?” She opened her eyes finally, wetting her lips, and repeated herself, stronger. “Or what? What will you do?”

“I’d ask you to come with us,” Mako blurted. “Come with us.” For a breath, there was only silence and the way thoughts flooded over Ami’s face. “Come with me.”

* * *

 

There had been something different just then, something different in the way Mako’s chapped lips had brushed over hers. She still tasted like the ocean, like salt and wind, but there was something else this time, too.

“Come with us,” she pleaded, and the sound of her voice was a breath. “Come with me. Come with me.”

Static, Ami thought, something like static electricity, crackling in her teeth. “I’ll go with you,” she said.

_But only to the ship_.

She wanted to go, to be surrounded by nothing but open sea and sky again, to keep her promises and answer as many questions as she could about science and the stars, to see for herself how the ocean wrapped around the world… but Mako and the others would still need someone to cover for them, and she would be fine, probably. She could live without the sea; she’d done it all this time before they’d come along. “Take this, won’t you?” She held out the wooden box again; Mako took it this time, looking lighter than she had since they’d gotten here. Reaching for her free hand, Ami left the keys beside the man on the ground and stepped over him, very carefully.

The pop of static had spilled into the air outside—it was going to storm, she realized at the distant rumbling in the sky. “We’d better hurry,” Mako whispered, but she waited for her to start towards the docks before following suit.

She had fallen exactly eight steps behind when someone said her name. “Ami?” Turning, she ran through a hundred things she could say to explain—none of them would satisfy both the princess and Mako, she thought with a sinking feeling. Usagi looked from her to Mako, who had come back immediately and was tensed nervously beside her. “You’re leaving.”

“No,” she said, at the same time that Mako said, “I’m sorry.”

Usagi held out both hands and smiled. “No, you are, I can tell. You gotta promise you’ll write every single day though! And say a real goodbye this time, since you’re leaving on purpose!” She turned to the pirate and pointed at her. “And you! You don’t have to be sorry, but you do have to swear you’re really one of the good guys like Ami says.” Holding up her little finger, the princess continued seriously, “And you have to come back sometimes and bring me some of the super cool food you find on your pirating adventures. And tell me all about the general debauchery you guys’re doing!”

“Wh—wait, I thought it was depravity,” Mako said, confused as she awkwardly hooked her little finger around Usagi’s. “And, um, yeah. Absolutely.”

Satisfied with Mako’s answer, Usagi nodded and turned her head, not letting go of her pinky. “Ami?”

She hesitated, wavering. “I can’t—I can’t really—”

“It’s okay.” The princess offered her other hand with a bright smile. “I’ll help! But you have to promise first.” Her head tipped slightly to the side, chin thrust up hopefully, blonde pigtails draped half over her shoulders and tangled together. She was a mess, and she was the princess, and she was Ami’s friend. “Promise, and then go.”

She could go. She could go with them, she could go anywhere at all. She could _go_ , and the thought loosened the tension in her chest.

Ami took her hand and stepped forward to hug her. “I promise,” she whispered. “I’ll write.”

“Every day?” Usagi demanded, clinging to her in return.

“Every day.”

“And you’ll tell me all about being a pirate and what it’s like out there and all the places you go and things you see and new food there is and—and—and everything?” She pulled away to look between them, hopeful.

Mako offered a slightly confused, crooked smile. “Anything for you, princess.”

“Captain!” called an urgent voice from the docks. “Captain, we need to go!”

“Right—” As she turned back to them, Ami reached for her hand. “Um, Your Highness, er—I’m sorry,” Mako said again, bending over in an awkward attempt at a bow before the princess.

Usagi flung her arms around her too. “You write too! I’m sorry we didn’t get to know each other better, but we can still be friends!” She hopped back and pointed. “Now go, okay?”

Tugging gently at her hand, Mako took a step. “Thank you, princess. We’ll… uh, well, maybe visiting isn’t a good idea—”

There was a flash of bright white light from somewhere over the water that made Ami turn, and at the resounding clap of thunder following they distinctly heard Baldy yell. “ _Captain!_ ”

“We’re coming!”

With one last wave to Usagi, who was doing a very good job of keeping up a brave face despite her trembling lower lip and teary eyes, they took off for the new ship just as the rain started. “At last,” Pegleg sighed, waving them up onto the ship urgently. He gestured for Brutus to push off as soon as they were on board. “I had hoped we would set sail before the rain began. It will, you see, cause some damage to my false leg—”

Baldy ruffled his hair and shoved him playfully. “They’re fine. Go down to our room, wait it out, buddy.” He turned back to them with a smile. “Captain.” To Ami, he grinned, “Glad you’re joining us.”

“Yes,” Pegleg interrupted, poking his head back up from below deck, “we will make great use of you as a powder monkey in the future.”

Mako scowled. “ _No_ , we will _not_ , Pegleg, that’s rude. Unless you want to,” she added hurriedly.

Laughing, Ami took the chessboard back from her. “I can do that. I’m here on purpose this time; if I can help somehow, I want to.” Another boom of distant thunder, and the rain came down harder. She squinted up through the rain at Mako’s delighted beaming. “Starting with this—we’re all going to catch a cold,” she chided, grabbing her sleeve to pull her down below. “This is a ship from the royal navy, and they have everything indoors for situations exactly like this!”

“Do you know where this magic indoors ship’s wheel is?”

“It isn’t magic, and of course I do—did you have a destination in mind?”

“Actually, there’s this neat little island I’ve been thinking about…”

* * *

 

The faint sounds of laughter were drowned out by thunder as the _HMS Violet_ faded from the view of the princess on the dock. Usagi sniffed and wiped at her eyes fervidly with a trembling smile. The rain came down, and as she turned to go back inside, she thought about how the pirate had looked at her friend, like if she never looked anywhere else she’d never notice she was missing anything, how she’d braced herself at the sight of Usagi and held onto Ami’s hand. She thought about how Ami had smiled when she told her about how she had shown the pirate the patterns in the stars, how she’d flexed her fingers nervously and said _Mako_ instead of _Captain Kino_ like Rei did, how much lighter she’d seemed since they’d found her again.

This was a good thing. The pirate captain couldn’t be a bad person—someone bad wouldn’t look at Ami like that. Someone bad wouldn’t make her so happy.

Usagi looked up at the frantic sound of bells, and she went to talk to her mother.


End file.
